


Switched

by Krissy, YourDearOldFriend



Series: Cursed [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Blood and Injury, Body Swap, Curses, Duelling, F/M, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, like seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-04-30 09:00:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 49,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14493462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krissy/pseuds/Krissy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourDearOldFriend/pseuds/YourDearOldFriend
Summary: Albus and Scorpius return from the past and continue their school year and everything slowly seems to go back to normal again. After some time however, Scorpius notices that there is something seriously wrong with his best friend. Meanwhile Albus wakes up in a place he doesn't know and inside a body that certainly doesn't belong to him.





	1. Scorpius

Scorpius woke up with a scream, scrambling up in his bed, tightly clutching his blanket to his chest. He was shaking, his throat felt dry and tight, the images of his nightmare still flashing before his eyes. He swallowed, glancing at the clock on his nightstand, showing it was way past midnight. The moonlight was shining into his bedroom, illuminating the half closed curtain on his open window, it was flying in the wind and reminded him of something utterly horrible. He didn’t feel capable of standing up and closing it though, so he turned around, his back facing the window, staring at the wall next to his bed. He couldn’t quite stop the shaking, even though he was doing his best to calm down and breathe evenly again. It was only a dream. A horrible terribly frightening dream, but nothing more. Still, he couldn’t get the mental pictures out of his head. Delphi, pointing her wand at Albus, his friend writhing on the ground, then she turned into Voldemort, sending a green flash of lightning towards him and he had shot awake, sweating and panting, his best friends screams still ringing in his ears. He shut his eyes, pulling up his blanket, trying to block that out. She was in Azkaban, Voldemort was dead, they were fine, it was over...

The window rattled behind him and he winced, turning around. The curtains were still flying in the wind, they still were just that, there was nothing coming in. Yet he felt ice cold. And scared. So scared he didn’t even dare to move, fearing Voldemort would emerge out of some dark corner in his room and send the Killing Curse at him.

In this moment Scorpius desperately wished for his best friend. For one of his surprising unannounced hugs, for the warmth of his voice and the way he always managed to make him feel a bit safer. Albus would understand him, they went through this together. Not through everything but through most of it. Scorpius briefly wondered if maybe Albus was having nightmares as well, maybe he was lying awake at this very moment too. Maybe he even was thinking of him.

Thinking of Albus made him feel a bit better, his heart calmed down slowly, his breath evening. But only until the door swung open and Scorpius jumped, immediately sitting upright in his bed, crawling to the very back, one hand grabbing for his wand. He held it out in front of him, holding his breath, eyes widened in fear, trying to spot something in the darkness.

“Scorpius?”, said his fathers voice and a wave of relief crashed over him. Of course it was only his father. Who else? He was so silly to think someone would break into their house and come for him...

He lowered his wand when his father entered, a soft blue light floating in front of him.

“It’s just me... Is everything okay? I heard you scream...”

His father approached him, the blue orb lightening up his face, revealing his worried expression. Scorpius swallowed guiltily, shifting to the edge of the bed. He never wanted him to be concerned. He would never have the idea on coming and waking him at night because of a nightmare. He was not a child anymore and his father certainly wouldn’t want his son to be that weak. He wanted to show him he was strong.

“I’m alright, dad.” His voice came out weaker than he wanted it to, he briefly closed his eyes, forcing himself to take a deep breath, clearing his throat.

“Just a nightmare.”

His father nodded slowly, his frown and the worry in his eyes stayed.

“Okay. Are you sure you’re alright though? You’re shaking, Scorpius.”

Scorpius quickly nodded even though that wasn’t the truth. He wasn’t alright. He was afraid and he surely couldn’t sleep now. But how should his father help him with that? Read him a story until he fell asleep? Hold his hand? He was fifteen, he didn’t need that...

He wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his arms to overplay his fear.

“Bit chilly.”

His fathers eyes flew to the window, with a flick of his wand he closed it. Then he focused his son again and Scorpius forced out a weak smile.

“I’m good. You can go back to sleep. I’m sorry for waking you.”

His dad sighed softly, then surprisingly took a seat next to him on the bed. Scorpius averted his eyes and intensely focused his bedsheets.

“This is not your first nightmare. Is it?”

Scorpius shook his head, fingers tracing the S-shape on his blanket. No, it wasn’t. He was being plagued by them nearly every night since he returned from that horrible world where Voldemort had ruled. He didn’t tell his dad because it would only worry him and he wouldn’t understand. Scorpius didn’t think he would understand.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t...”, he started but his voice came out as nothing more than a hoarse whisper. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I didn’t know... what to say...”

His father put his hand on his shoulder, Scorpius leaned into his warm touch without even realizing.

“You can always come to me, Scorpius. I know it’s different since your mum is... isn’t here anymore, but I can be as much of a comfort as she was. If you let me be...”

Scorpius managed a brief nod, clenching his teeth, his eyes suddenly stinging with tears. He never thought about going to his father with his worries. Except that time in that other world where Albus had been in Gryffindor and his father had forced them apart. He had been there for him then, why wouldn’t he now? He was his dad, the only family he had left.

“I-I’m sorry...” he got out, his eyes burning. He quickly wiped them with his sleeve, biting his lip. He wouldn’t cry now. He wouldn’t show weakness.

His father sighed, pulling him into his arms and Scorpius was very glad about it. He closed his eyes, tightly wrapping his arms around him. He needed this. And his father wouldn’t judge, would he? He knew what he went through... He had told him of that dark world he was in, of the Dementors and Craig and what Delphi had done... He knew. He wouldn’t think him weak for having nightmares. At least he hoped so.

“It’s okay, Scorpius. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just think... it would be good for you to talk about it.”

Scorpius sniffed, nodding. He knew that himself. He would try.

“I know, it’s... it’s difficult...” He wiped his cheeks, taking a deep shuddering breath. “I... I can’t forget some things, they keep coming back to me in... in my dreams...”

Draco stroked his back, nodding.

“I understand. You saw a lot of things, you’ve been through a lot of danger, it’s only natural... But you’re safe, no one can hurt you anymore. I promise. They’ll stop.”

Scorpius sighed, nodding softly, his fingers grabbing into each other nervously. He knew that. He knew he was being ridiculous and still he was so very scared.

“Thank you...” He hoped his dad wouldn’t ask more questions, the worst of all being, what did you dream of?

Draco squeezed him tight for a moment, before leaning back, gently ruffling though his hair like he had always done when he had been little. It made him smile a little.

“Of course... But now you have to try to sleep a bit.” He lifted the blanket and Scorpius crawled back under it, pulling it up to his chin.

His dad patted his arm, getting up from his bed and immediately he felt cold again.

“Remember, tomorrow you’ll be back at Hogwarts. It will be better there. You’re not alone. You’ll get to see Albus again, isn’t that good?”

He obviously tried to make him feel better and indeed the mention of Albus’ name brought some light back into his darkness. He nodded softly, even managing a smile. His best friend would be there for him. They’d be together again, that was good, he was looking forward to that.

“Do you think you can go back to sleep again? Is there anything I can do for you?”

For a moment the childish urge to plead him to stay until he fell asleep overcame him but he didn’t dare to ask. He simply shook his head, sinking down into his cushions.

“No... Just... maybe leave that light here, will you?”

“Yes. Of course.”

Draco leaned down to him, pressing a kiss to his forehead, something he hadn’t done in a while. Scorpius stared at him for a moment, before deciding he would think about it tomorrow. He was tired and even though he was scared of closing his eyes, he had to get at least a little bit of sleep.

“Goodnight, Scorpius.”

“Night, Dad.”

His father stood up, pausing in the doorway for a moment before stepping through and closing the door.

Scorpius took a deep breath, before closing his eyes. He was fine. He wouldn’t fall back into that dream. That wasn’t possible. The possibility of having two nightmares in one night was pretty little, he knew that.

He opened his eyes again, staring at the ceiling. It was illuminated by the light his father had brought, casting dark shadows over the walls. He shut his eyes again before tightly grabbing his pillow and hugging it. Maybe he could pretend it was Albus. He’d surely fall asleep faster if Albus was with him right now. Albus would be better than any pillow...

Scorpius frowned, turning onto his back and opening his eyes for a second time. Did he just think he would like to cuddle with Albus? Wasn’t that weird? Wanting to cuddle with their best mate? Not just wanting to cuddle but cuddle like he just did with his pillow? Would Albus even want that too? He always started with the hugs and everything... Probably not. He would probably push him away, wouldn’t he? Maybe he could ask him tomorrow. _Hey Albus, how would you like it if I squeeze you like me pillow tonight?_ No. Just no.

He sighed, rolling onto the side again, staring at his Slytherin-colored pillow he had gotten from his grandparents at Christmas in his first year at Hogwarts. It was soft after he slept on it for almost five years. Albus’ skin was soft too. He had noticed when he had grabbed his hand on the train roof and in the church... And the pillow was green, like his eyes. They were a nice green, not a dirty one. He liked looking into them, although it was easy to get lost into them sometimes. They very much matched his dark hair and nice face. Yes, Albus had a nice face. Albus had a straight nose, defined cheekbones and lovely lips. Okay lips. He should stop thinking about Albus’ lips. That was definitely too much.

Scorpius nuzzled into his not-Slytherin pillow, closing his eyes. He had to admit he missed his best friend. They had been apart for barely a week, still he was longing to see him again. The last days had been hard and he longed for someone to be there for him, someone he could talk to. Not that his dad wasn’t that person but he needed a friend. Albus was his only friend. His best friend. And that was different. He was different. A good different of course. Everything about Albus was good. Well, almost.

His thoughts were pretty much confusing, Scorpius blamed it on his lack of sleep. He would think about all that tomorrow. For now, he’d just be looking forward to seeing his best friend again.  
_

“Scorpius... Scorpius.”

Scorpius rolled to the side, frowning at a voice saying his name. Why did they disturb him, couldn’t they see he was sleeping? He snuggled in his blanket, trying to hold onto his dream. There had been Hogsmeade and he had been locked into Honeydukes and spent all night trying different sort of sweets and was just getting to the Sugared Butterfly Wings when he was interrupted, unfortunately.

“Scorpius, wake up...”

He recognized the voice as his fathers, felt someone lightly pulling on his blanket. No, he didn’t want to get up...

“Not yet...”, he mumbled, without opening his eyes, holding onto the blanket, his father sighed dramatically.

“Good. You wanted it this way, so...”

Scorpius eyes snapped open at that, in time to see his father pulling out his wand and pointing it at him. He quickly sat up, shaking his head, the bright sunlight stinging in his eyes.

“No, it fine! I’m awake, I’m here!”

He definitely did not want his father to perform some kind of spell on him that turned his bed upside down or something. Draco smiled pleased, putting his wand back into his coat. He was already dressed of course, hair back in his usual braid.

Scorpius suppressed a yawn, shielding his eyes and turning to look at the clock. Seven. At about eight they would travel back to Hogwarts via Floo powder. Professor McGonagall had allowed them to stay home for a week after they all had returned from Godric’s Hallow. To digest everything that happened, she had said. Scorpius thought he needed a little more time than a week to digest something like that.

“Get up, breakfast is ready”, his father continued, as always, Scorpius nodded, crawling to the edge of his bed.

“...be right there...”

Draco gave a brief nod, before leaving his room, closing the door behind him. Scorpius remained sitting on his bed for a minute or so, trying to stop his eyes from falling shut again, before getting up.

He ran his hand through his hair, strolling over to his wardrobe, opening it. Right, most of his things were still at Hogwarts. He didn’t bother to get them home. But there was nothing wrong with a normal dark green pullover, was there? It was Saturday, he didn’t need to wear his robes thankfully.

Putting on fresh clothes he wondered if things had changed at Hogwarts. The headmistress certainly had informed the students about the events. She had to. A student died. He had to swallow at the thought, feeling an icy cold creeping into his stomach at the memory. It had been horrible. He didn’t even want to imagine how his friends and family were feeling.

He shoved these thoughts away, quickly brushing his hair back with his fingers, it never stayed like he wanted anyway. After briefly casting his reflection in the mirror a glance, he hurried down the stairs to the kitchen.

His father was sitting at the table, reading a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ , his brows twitching into a deep frown. Scorpius better not asked.

“Morning.” He mumbled, sitting down on his usual chair, putting a croissant on his plate. His dad folded the newspaper back together, quickly putting it away, but Scorpius caught a glimpse of the words _time-turner_ and his stomach dropped.

“Morning, Scorpius. Slept well?”

He met his fathers eyes and Scorpius could see them widening slightly, he quickly cleared his throat.

“After the nightmare, I mean?”

He lowered his head, a tiny bit ashamed that they were talking about this in the daylight. Now it didn’t seem so bad anymore. It seemed like he could have dealt with this himself. His father really didn’t have to know...

“Yes. You?”

“Can’t complain. Are you ready to go back to Hogwarts?”

Scorpius nodded softly. He didn’t feel ready at all. The only thing he was looking forward to was seeing Albus again. And Rose maybe.

“Good. We’ll be going when you’re finished.”

His father grabbed the newspaper again, putting it aside, Scorpius followed it with his eyes.

“Anything in there?”, he asked before he could stop himself, immediately biting his lip. He didn’t want to know. It wouldn’t be good news anyway. Draco glanced up again, raising one brow.

“In here? No. Nothing important.”

“Okay.” Scorpius bit off his croissant, deciding to no ask further. He should probably be glad about his dad not wanting to tell him about it.

He ate in silence, a lot of thoughts spinning through his head. What could they’ve been writing? Did they find out about the time turner? Surely they knew about Voldemort’s daughter and wrote about that. That she was in Azkaban now. About a death at Hogwarts and Harry Potter’s son traveling back in time with the son of an ex Death Eater.

He briefly shook his head, pushing away his empty plate.

“Okay. I’m done.”

His dad waved his wand, sending their empty plates into the kitchen sink, letting magic do the dishes.

“Need anything from upstairs?”

He shook his head, getting up from his chair, his father followed after into their big living room where their fireplace was. Scorpius stepped into the fireplace first, feeling a little nervous. He only travelled via Floo powder two or three times, he preferred Apparating, it was less... dirty. His father stepped beside him, a little closer than usual, handing him a silver bowl with black greenish powder in it, he took a handful.

“Together?”, his father asked, he nodded. Draco put his hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly.

“One, two, three; Headmaster’s Office, Hogwarts!”

The green flames shot up around them and Scorpius felt like he was spinning very fast, he was glad for his fathers hand steadying him. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he saw McGonagalls office, the Headmistress behind her desk, getting up as the entered.

His father stiffled a cough, brushing some ash of his shoulders as he stepped past him.

“Professor McGonagall. I’m here to bring my son.”

He spoke in this casual business-like tone that always sounded like he was just having a chit chat. It made him feel a bit like he was just a package to deliver.

The Professor nodded, giving Scorpius a little smile.

“Thank you. I’m glad you’re back, Mr Malfoy.”

Scorpius glanced around, to see if Albus was here somewhere– which he wasn’t, he would’ve seen him by now, if he wasn’t hiding under the table. But Professor McGonagall seemed to notice his looks, her smile grew a bit.

“Mr Potter arrived a few minutes ago, I’m sure you’ll catch him just down the hallway, if you hurry.”

Scorpius was already about to storm through the door when his fathers strong grip on his arm held him back. He swallowed, turning around, smiling a sheepish smile.

“Right. Sorry. Bye dad.”

“Goodbye, Scorpius. Behave.”

“Of course”, he smiled, before rushing out of the office, to find his best friend. He turned the corner, his heart stumbled as he spotted Albus indeed, back turned to him, walking next to his father. Before he could stop himself and on the top of his lungs he yelled:

“ALBUS!”

His best friend turned around, stopping in his tracks, his father as well. Scorpius sprinted towards them, slipping a bit and almost stumbling into Albus, but he managed to steady himself last second. What he didn’t manage though was restraining himself from pulling his friend into a bone crushing hug.

“It’s absolutely great to see you!”

Albus very hesitantly put his arms around him, chuckling softly.

“Okay. It’s great to see you too...”

Scorpius closed his eyes, squeezing him tightly, just like his pillow yesterday. Only that this time someone was hugging him back.

“I missed you so much, you don’t even know...”

Finally he could hug him again, smell his familiar Albus-smell and hear his voice again. He suddenly felt like just being together with Albus was the solution to half of his problems.

“You saw me last week...”, he mumbled into his shoulder, Scorpius could hear a faint smile out of his voice. He eagerly rubbed his back.

“I know. But a week is a long time.”

“If you say so.”

Scorpius realised it was probably time to let him go again, even though he was sure he could hug Albus for an eternity.

He slowly leaned back, meeting his beautiful green eyes. Green eyes. Not beautiful. Only green.

“Hi.”

Albus let out a chuckle, softly fist bumping his shoulder.

“Hi, you.”

Scorpius grinned back at him before slowly realizing that Albus’ father was still standing beside him, smiling unsurely. He turned to him, giving a brief awkward wave.

“And Mr Potter. Hi.”

“Hello, Scorpius. Didn’t... your dad come with you?”

Scorpius nodded quickly, wildly gesturing down the corridor. “He is in McGonagalls office. I just wanted to... well, find Albus as fast as possible.”

He smiled embarrassed, Harry’s eyes flickered to his son and then back to him, he managed a brief smile.

“I see. Well, I was just wondering. And... I should probably floo back as well. Still got some work to do.”

He turned to Albus, awkwardly patting his shoulder.

“You're with your friend now. I can go right...?”

“Of course. I’ll see you in the holidays then. Dad.”

“Right.” Harry cleared his throat, then took some steps back.

“Goodbye, Albus.”

“Bye.” Scorpius watched as Albus watched his dad descend down the corridor, until he was around the corner, without turning around once more. There was a look in his green eyes he couldn’t quite name.

“Are... things better between the two of you?”

Albus averted his eyes, sighing softly. Scorpius joined him on their way down the corridor, carefully eying his friend from the side. He was staring at the ground in front of them, not looking very happy. A sight Scorpius didn’t like at all, but a sight he was used to. Unfortunately.

“I... he tries his best. He’s obviously glad to have me back, but I think he’s still scared too. He told me how sorry he was for saying all these things and that he didn’t mean it and he hopes I can forgive him.”

“And, can you?” Scorpius knew how bad Albus had felt after his father accidentally had let it slip that he sometimes wished he weren’t his son. He had tried to hide it but it had visibly gotten to him. His best friend wasn’t exactly good at hiding his feelings.

Albus shrugged his shoulders, looking thoughtful.

“I’ll try. He’s my father after all.”

Scorpius hummed in agreement. He wanted Albus and his father to get along again. They were family after all. He couldn’t imagine arguing with his own dad for so long. But it probably was different between them. They only had each other now.

“My dad’s worried too, I think. This morning he hid a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ from me, because in there was something about time-turners...”, he mumbled, remembering his father shoving the newspaper under the table. He didn’t want him to see, so it had to be pretty bad... Albus slightly turned to him, frowning.

“About time-turners? About... us?”

“I don’t know.” Scorpius sighed as they went down the staircase to the Slytherin dungeons. “But I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

They entered the Slytherin common room after saying the password. immediately a few heads turned to them and the chattering lessened.

Scorpius swallowed, moving a bit closer to Albus. He didn’t want them to ask questions. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to answer them.

“Malfoy, Potter, back from the past?”, a boy from their year sneered, immediately earning a few disagreeing mumbles. That never happened, normally they all laughed at them. He supposed it had something to do with what McGonagall had said.

“How was it, seeing Voldemort? Is it true he’s missing a nose?”, a girl from year one or two asked, getting up from the couch, two of her friends following after. Scorpius cast Albus a glance. His friend was looking highly uncomfortable, his eyes shining with something like awkward anxiety.

“You saw Bowker die, didn’t you?” Another boy threw in, immediately the girl next to him hit his arm, hissing something like: “We’re not supposed to ask them, remember?”

So McGonagall had told them about Craig and the two of them witnessing that. He briefly wondered if there was anything else they shouldn’t ask them.

“Did he have any last words?” Another girl asked, actually sounding close to tears, a friend had supportively wrapped her arm around her. Maybe they had been friends. Scorpius shuddered slightly at the thought. Maybe Craig’s parents would like to talk to them too...

“He didn’t...”, Albus said beside him, silently, eyes lowered to the ground.  
“He didn’t... have the time.”

The girl sniffed silently, nodding softly, Scorpius averted his eyes, couldn’t stand looking at them. Craig had been a nice boy, he never had been one of the bullies. A bright student, a prefect, with a lot of friends and a promising looking future. And it had all been ripped away from him. And Scorpius couldn’t help but feel partly guilty for that.

“Is it true that he was killed by Voldemort’s daughter?”, the friend of the crying girl asked, rubbing her friends back.

The chattering began again, Scorpius saw Albus next to him looking up again, his eyes briefly flickering over to him. He opened his mouth to say something but didn’t know what. His throat felt tight at the memory of Delphi, the memory of what she had done. He had seen her kill mercilessly, she had tortured him, she had nearly killed Albus as well. Back in that church... Fearing to loose his best friend, his only friend had almost been worse than witnessing Harry’s parents getting murdered by Lord Voldemort himself.

_“I’m going to crawl through it...”, Albus suddenly whispered, making his heart stop. Through it? He wanted to crawl through this little air craft to the other side of the door where his dad was, where Voldemort’s daughter was? He could hear them fighting, shooting spells at each other, she put up quite the fight. Of course, he knew how powerful she was, he had seen her kill. And she wouldn’t hesitate to kill Albus too._

_Scorpius’ chest felt tight at the thought. He didn’t want him to get into any more danger... And despite shaking slightly and not feeling like he could breathe properly, he took a step forward, grabbing his friends arm._

_“No. Let me do it–“_

_“No, Scorpius.” His father said sternly, protectively grabbing his shoulders and pulling him back to his side. Albus’ mother didn’t seem to fond of the idea of her son getting himself into danger like this either._

_“Albus, I don’t know...”, she whispered hoarsely, casting the locked door nervous glances. Albus stared at her, then looked back to Scorpius._

_“But we need to get in there somehow! He can’t face her alone!”_

_A loud bang sounded behind the door, followed by Delphi’s laugh that sent a cold shiver down Scorpius’ spine. Albus was right. Harry couldn’t fight her for much longer alone. Ginny was chewing on her lip, nodding slowly._

_“Okay. But be careful, please...”_

_“Ginny, I don’t think that’s a good idea–“ Hermione tried, but Albus was already kneeling down and lifting the grid that was sealing the air craft._

_“We have no other choice”, Ron said, his arm around his wife, a worried expression on his face, eyes fixed on the door. Scorpius didn’t like this at all. This was way to dangerous, the possibility that something would happen to Albus way too high... But if they didn’t do anything, Delphi would certainly manage to overpower Harry soon..._

_“Take my wand, Al...” Ginny handed it to him, Scorpius quickly remembered that Delphi had snapped both their own wands. “And as soon as you’re on the other side, you unlock the doors. Alohomora will do.”_

_Albus nodded determined, casting Scorpius one last glance before he disappeared through the hole. Scorpius didn’t dare to think that maybe this was the last time he had seen his best friend alive._

_“Seriously, you let your son–“, his father started, clearly shocked that she let Albus go this easily, but Ginny interrupted him._

_“I would have crawled through it myself if I could have! I will not be sitting behind this door and let my husband get murdered, not when there’s a chance we can do something about it!”_

_Scorpius swallowed, glancing up at his father carefully, who just scoffed softly, not saying anymore._

_They all listened attentively, wands drawn, except for Ginny and Scorpius who stayed back a bit, unarmed._

_Another bang sounded, Scorpius could hear Delphi’s sneering voice._

_“... stop my father, you’re destruction will be assured. What do I do...? Oh well, I’m bored. I’ll kill you.”_

_Ron and Hermione exchanged a glance and Ginny beside him held her breath, the sound of something heavy falling to the ground echoed. Scorpius hoped Albus would emerge soon and simultaneously he didn’t. This was so dangerous... Hadn’t there been another way? Couldn’t they have just blasted open the doors? He didn’t dare to think that Albus might get hurt, he couldn’t bear that._

_“He’ll be alright, won’t he?” Scorpius whispered, grabbing his fathers hand that was on his shoulder._

_“I hope so, Scorpius...”_  
_His father softly squeezed his fingers before stepping a bit closer to the door, tightly holding onto his wand._

_Then suddenly a lot of things happened at once. Albus’ voice sounded from behind the door, then Harry’s voice yelled his name, then Delphi screeched “Avada Kedavra!”_

_Scorpius felt like his heart stopped for a second. An ice cold shiver run down his back, as he waited anxiously for some kind of response. A green flash of light shone through the gap under the door, Ginny gasped silently and Scorpius grabbed his dad’s sleeve. He mentally prepared himself for saying a final goodbye to his best friend, for again having lost someone so important to him, but in the next second he heard Albus’ voice again, shouting “Alohomora!”_

_The doors swung open and Ron and Hermione stormed through, Draco and Ginny followed after. Scorpius, even though his heart was beating anxiously, hurried after. The nave of the church looked like a mess, pews were lying everywhere, Harry stood in the middle of the aisle, Albus was next to him, his father was vigorously shoving him behind him. Delphi at the front aimed her wand at him. For a moment time seemed to freeze._

_Then everything happened at once. Delphi sent a red bolt at them, his father sent a blue one back, they met in the middle, coloring the church in purple light. Scorpius closed his eyes against the light, stumbling a step back. There was a series of loud bangs and flashing lights, then a piercing scream that had to belong to Delphi. He dared to open his eyes, first looking over to Albus to see if he was okay– then to Delphi._

_She was kneeling on the ground, her silvery hair hanging into her eyes which were lowered to the ground in defeat. Scorpius’ father was holding her wand, having disarmed her, Hermione reacted fast._

_“Brachiabindo!”_

_Delphi’s hands and feet were bound, Harry approached her, not taking his eyes of her. Draco stepped next to his son, holding out Delphi’s wand, he stared at it for a moment. He wanted him to take it? He trusted him with it?_

_He slowly reached his hand out for it, for a second meeting his fathers eyes. He gave a brief nod and Scorpius closed his hand around it. He didn’t know what he expected but nothing happened, he only noticed the wand was still warm from Delphi’s touch. He swallowed, firmly holding onto it._

_“How dare you hurt my son!”_

_His attention snapped back to Harry, who was aiming his wand at Delphi, shaking with anger or fear, Scorpius couldn’t tell. Both presumably._

_“I only wanted to meet my father...”_

_Her voice was surprisingly honest, strong nevertheless but a whole lot less intimidating. Scorpius’ eyes darted back to his best friend, who was standing next to Ginny, his mothers arm tightly wrapped around him. He was okay, nothing happened. He wasn’t dead. He breathed out in relief. That was everything he needed to know. He felt his own father grab his shoulder again, pulling him closer as well. He was pretty glad about it yet he wished it would be Albus._

_Harry stepped closer to Delphi, Scorpius couldn’t see his face but he was certain he had never seen Harry Potter more shaken than now. It was almost frightening._

_Someone grabbed his arm, Albus had freed himself out is his mothers grip and stumbled over to him, Scorpius gladly put his arm around him, eying him worriedly. He looked unharmed but his eyes were wide with shock and he was shaking._

_“You okay?”, he breathed out, softly touching his wrist, his friend managed a brief nod._

_“You?”_

_Scorpius nodded, holding onto his sleeve. He wouldn’t let go of him. Not if he didn’t have to. Not until they were out of here._

_“Just let me see him...”, Delphi’s whispered voice interrupted his thoughts, Scorpius would have actually pitied her if she hadn’t tried to kill Albus a minute ago._

_“I can’t let you do that.” Harry answered, his wand still aiming at her heart, Ron and Hermione at his side. Delphi looked like she was about to cry, but there was still so much anger in her eyes, now mixing with despair. Scorpius couldn’t imagine how she must feel. He wondered if Harry could._

_“Then kill me.”_

_Scorpius swallowed. He didn’t want to see someone die again. Even if it was Delphi and she undoubtedly deserved it for what she had done. He couldn’t bear to see that green flash of lightning again, knowing very well what it had done. He couldn’t, he didn’t want to... He cast his father a slightly panicked glance but he was grimly focusing Delphi._

_He hardly noticed Albus apparently thinking similar and slowly sliding his fingers through his._

_“I can’t do that either.”_

_“What?”, Albus hissed, pulling his hand out of his, when did it get there? Scorpius wanted to hold on but it was too late. His best friend approached his father, looking just as determined._

_“She’s dangerous, Dad, I’ve seen her murder– she’s a murderer!“_

_“Yes, she is. But we’re not.”_

_“But she–“_

_“I know. It’s annoying but that’s how we learned it.” Ron said, shrugging and looking a little too casual for Scorpius’ opinion. Again he glanced up at his father, who was watching them anxiously, to see if he thought so too. He did apparently, he didn’t say anything. Scorpius didn’t know what to think of that. No one deserved to die, but she had murdered an innocent student, nearly Harry Potter and his son, she wanted to bring the darkness back, Lord Voldemort himself. In his opinion, Azkaban was too mild for that._

_“Then take my mind. Make me forget who I am, take my–“_

_“No”, Hermione interrupted and her voice didn’t allow any objection. “You come with us back to our time.”_

_“Where you’ll spend the rest of your days in Azkaban”, Harry added and Delphi’s head snapped up again, she slowly shook it, eyes wide. “Same as your mother.”_

_“Where you’ll rot.” Draco added, his tone full of disgust, Scorpius winced a bit. He didn’t like his father like this._

_“Azkaban?”, she repeated, voice trembling, her eyes darted from Harry to Hermione, to Albus and him and his father. She looked actually frightened, he wondered how much she knew about the Wizarding prison. Perhaps Rowle told her of it._

_Harry nodded, raising his wand again, then suddenly something changed in Delphi’s eyes, her shoulders straightening. Scorpius wanted to point that out, but it was already too late. She somehow managed to get up, freeing herself of the bonds and before anyone could react snatching Harry’s wand out of his hand._

_There was a bright white light, a noise that sounded like a lightning twitching through the room, followed by Hermione’s voice yelling ‘Expelliarmus!” and Delphi casting a spell he didn’t understand. His father pushed him behind him, he tightly shut his eyes and another fight broke loose._

_How did she manage to break free? Without a wand? What was happening? Was someone hurt? Without realizing he heard himself fearfully whisper: “Albus?”_

_“Scorpius...”, Albus grabbed his hand again and Scorpius opened his eyes again, seeing his best friend unharmed, but his voice shaking, eyes anxiously focused on Delphi, Ron, Hermione and his parents engaged in a new battle._

_“You’re okay?” He asked again, just to make sure. Albus nodded, eyes flickering between the adults, the sudden urge to pull Albus into his arms and not let go again until this was all over overcame him but he felt frozen in place._

_“Stay back, Scorpius.” Draco commmaned before joining in the fight. They exchanged a series of bolts and spells, Scorpius didn’t even want to look, tightly holding onto Albus’ hand. His friend ducked slightly, pulling him closer. He was so close to him, he felt Albus’ breath hitting his skin, his trembling body next to his, it made him feel a bit better. Being close to him, knowing he was safe. He never would let him get himself into danger again._

_Suddenly Delphi shouted a spell Scorpius had never heard before and the church was enlightened in a bright white light, he shut his eyes, feeling Albus’ hand slip out of his. He reached for it again but only grasped thin air._

_“Albus?”_

_The world went numb around him, in the distance he heard someone scream again and suddenly felt very, very weak. His legs gave way and he sank to the ground, catching himself with one arm, shaking his head to clear it off the dizziness. What happened? His head was hurting so much, he blinked a few times, very slowly the blinding light lessened, the pain stopped. What was that? He looked around to see Harry straightening up as well again, their eyes met for barely a second._

_A moment later Scorpius felt his dads hands on his shoulders again, softly pulling him up._

_“Are you alright?”_

_“Yes... What was that spell?”_

_Draco glanced to his right where Hermione was helping Ron up and Albus’ parents each other. Delphi was lying on the ground, not moving and Scorpius swallowed at the sight._

_“That... were a lot of spells. I didn’t hear what she said but I suppose it collided with one of ours and knocked us all down...”_

_“She...”, Scorpius trailed off, gaping at Delphi, before spinning around to Albus who was still cowering on the floor, looking quite dazed. He wasn’t hurt, was he?_

_“Albus?” He dropped down next to his friend, carefully helping him up, he was looking slightly confused._

_“Did she hurt you?”_

_“No...”, he mumbled, pausing again, eyes fixed on Delphi’s limb body. “No... I’m fine...”_

_He slowly glanced down at himself as if to make sure of that, Scorpius nodded in relief. Good, he was fine, that was all that mattered..._

_“Albus, Scorpius? Are you alright?” Ginny rushed over to them, pulling her son into her arms, Harry joined them a bit hesitant. As soon as he wrapped his arm around Albus however, he broke down in utterly terrible screams, sinking to his knees, causing everyone to stumble back in shock._

_“What? Harry, what’s wrong?” Hermione hurried to his side as well as Ginny, Scorpius stared at Albus’ dad pressing both his hands to the scar on his forehead, panting in pain._

_“No... Not yet...”_

_“What?”, Albus whispered, staring at his dad, Scorpius reached for his hand again, but failing to take it when he took a step forward, towards his dad._

_“He’s coming...”, Hermione mumbled, clasping her hand over her mouth, Ron put his arm around her, grimaced._

_“Voldemort.”_

_“Scorpius.” He had never heard so much fear in his fathers voice before, as he firmly wrapped his arm around him, pulling him close. He anxiously glanced up at him, not able to say anything. His fathers eyes were wide, his lips tightly pressed together, he stared at the door of the church, then back to Harry, still kneeling on the floor._

_“Now, here?”, Albus asked hoarsely, glancing around. He had stopped shaking, Scorpius noticed, his eyes were intensely focusing the door. A cold feeling of terrible fear overcame him, nothing compared to how the Dementors had made him feel. Voldemort was coming. Now. Here. And he was going to kill Harry’s parents, and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it._

“Yes. That’s true. We saw it”, Albus said very quietly, not looking at one of them, nervously driving his tongue over his lips. Scorpius felt goosebumps creeping up his arms at the thought. Horrible, it had been so horrible... He needed to ask Albus if he was still having nightmares as well.

The girl nodded slowly, lowering her eyes. There was a uncomfortable silence in the room, then a boy, first year, Scorpius guessed, bravely raised his voice again.

“But... she’s in Azkaban now, isn’t she? She’s locked away?”

“She is.” Scorpius felt the need to say something, not wanting to leave it all to Albus. “Forever.”

The boy breathed out in relief, slowly the talking began again, the students returned to their homework or conversations. Scorpius met Albus’ eyes.

“Let’s go down.”

His friend nodded, they descended down the stairs to their bedroom, Scorpius wondered if it would still look the same. Nothing happened and yet everything seemed to have changed.

“Weird, isn’t it?”, Albus spoke out exactly what he was thinking. “Them, asking all these questions... It feels so surreal.”

Scorpius nodded, sitting down on his bed, smoothing out the blanket. Albus hesitated for a moment before sinking down next to him, looking at him. Scorpius didn’t know what to say. There was a feeling inside of him he couldn’t quite name, he felt weirdly empty and numb. It was the same feeling he had felt after his mother had died. And he didn’t want it, not at all.

“I dreamed of it”, he got out silently, suddenly having the strong urge to tell his best friend of all this.

“O-Of Delphi... and the torture. And Voldemort...”

Albus watched him with an unreadable expression, chewing on his lip. Scorpius took a deep breath, lowering his eyes, his hands nervously fidgeting with each other in his lap. He felt strangely reminded of last night, sitting on his bed with his father. And he kind of felt the need to take Albus hand. For comfort, he told himself.

He slid a bit closer to him, their legs touched, but he didn’t dare grabbing his hand. Albus still didn’t say anything.

“I... I woke up last night and I was so scared... I actually screamed and my dad comforted me... pathetic, right?”  
He tried to overplay his anxiety with a weak, empty chuckle. Albus sighed softly, shaking his head.

“No, Scorpius. You’re not pathetic. We... we’ve seen a lot of bad things. You more than I. This... this world, you’ve seen I can’t even imagine how that must’ve been like for you...”

Scorpius swallowed, the urge to take his hand stronger than ever. Nothing was stopping him. Not really.

“And Delphi torturing you... I... I still think it should have been me, you know?”

He glanced back up into Albus’ eyes, surprised, his friend averted his eyes, his eyes wandering around the room, lingering on the window. A few fish were swimming by.

“You? Why?”

Scorpius didn’t think he could have stand seeing Albus getting tortured. Himself, okay. He survived after all, even if it had been terribly painful and he had been sure she was actually killing him. But if she would’ve done the same to Albus? He didn’t dare to imagine.

“‘Cause... it was my fault that we even were in that situation. The whole thing, it was my idea–“

“No, Albus, we had this. We did this together, nothing is no ones fault. It happened. And it’s over...” Scorpius sighed softly, shifting a bit closer, their arms touched.

“She’s behind bars, we’re safe, Voldemort’s gone.”

He half expected Albus to mention Craig again but his friend nodded, managing a soft smile.

“Yeah. Thank goodness. About your nightmares... I have them too. You’re in them, mostly. My... my father too.”

His smile faded again and Scorpius finally gathered enough courage to grasp his hand. His skin was as soft as he remembered, maybe even softer. He lowered his gaze, watching his finger softly stroking over his hand.

“Delphi too...”, Albus then said, Scorpius squeezed his hand. He knew Delphi’s and Albus’ relationship had been... different. He had liked her. Really liked her, they had been friends kind of...

“You... liked her, didn’t you?”

He bit his lip, scoffing softly and nodding. Scorpius’ heart felt even heavier.

“I suppose, yeah. But... after we found out she’s Voldemort’s daughter... not so much.”

“No...”, Scorpius just mumbled. He had never fancied her, even before knowing that. He was glad about Albus’ hand in his, he wanted him to stay like this. He didn’t want to go back to the time when Albus liked someone else.

“I’m glad. I’m glad she’s behind bars I mean...”, he mumbled, Scorpius nodded. He was as well. He never wanted to see her again. Never.

“You know, about these nightmares... if that happens again, you can always wake me.” Albus nudged his shoulder softly, Scorpius almost automatically leaned against him.

“Thank you... you can wake me too.”

Their eyes met for a moment, his beautiful green eyes glancing back into his and Scorpius felt his face becoming strangely hot. He hadn’t been this close to Albus for a while, but he liked it. It made him feel warm, pushing away the strange emptiness inside of him a bit.

“I will.”

Scorpius nodded softly, squeezing his hand. He had the strange urge to get even closer to him, like holding his hand wasn’t enough. He wondered if it would be okay to hug him again. Just a little longer this time. What was holding him back? They had hugged before, there was nothing wrong with that, wasn’t it? They could just do it again, right? Right now.

He leaned a bit closer, Albus didn’t back off and he slowly wrapped his arm around him, very awkwardly. His best friend didn’t back off, he even leaned slightly towards him and a moment later Scorpius had wrapped both of his arms around his best friend, squeezing him tightly. Albus let out a soft chuckle.

“We hug now? That’s the second time you’ve done that... In what, an hour?”

He hugged him back nevertheless, Scorpius smiled softly, closing his eyes.

“Yeah. I didn’t know whether we should... You know, after everything that happened.”

“Of course we can...”, Albus mumbled, holding him tight. “Why wouldn’t we?”

Scorpius sighed, resting his head on his shoulder. They were closer now, weren’t they? Even closer than before. He liked that, he really did. He’d love to do that more often...

“I don’t know... Okay.”

Albus patted his back, slowly letting go again. He smiled at him with his unusual honest smile that even reached his eyes and for a moment Scorpius felt as if everything was alright again.


	2. Albus

It was dark around him. Strangely dark. And cold. He could hear wind howling, steps echoing on a stone floor and something that sounded like... waves? Albus slowly turned onto his back, noticing the surface he was lying on was weirdly hard and sticky, not exactly how he remembered his bed to be. His head was was hurting, his limbs felt heavy, he barely managed to open his eyes.

 

He was staring right at a dark stone ceiling, a few pieces were broken out, it was dirty, there was a spiderweb in the upper corner, the spider was nowhere to be seen. Was this a nightmare? It felt strangely real. He was freezing, it was ice cold here, why was it so cold? It was still summer, wasn’t it? He blinked again, slowly lifting up his hurting head. His eyes felt heavy, he tried blinking away this strange tiredness, everything blurred around him for a moment and he shut them briefly. When he opened them again everything was clear but it only made him more confused. He was sitting on the floor, on nothing more but a worn-out mattress and the room he was in consisted of barely anything more than that. In one of the corners was a little empty bucket, one wall was... made of bars?

 Where the hell was he? He had never seen this place before. What happened, how did he get here? Where were his parents, Scorpius and Delphi? The last thing he remembered was crawling through that shaft in the church in Godric’s Hallow, facing Delphi together with his father. He had opened the doors to let the others in and... and then? That was the last thing he remembered. What had happened then? Did Delphi escape? What about Voldemort?

“She’s waking up, I think...”, a male voice to his right said, his head snapped to the side, looking through the bars there were two intimidating looking man standing, their wands drawn, eyes fixed on him. He had never seen them before. Who were they talking about? He glanced around, but there were no others in the room. What was going on? He slowly started to panic. He was alone with these man, where was his dad? Where was Scorpius? Did they manage to go back to the future? In what time where they in? Did they fail and now he was imprisoned with these two men guarding him? Did Delphi win, did Voldemort win? But wouldn’t his father be dead then? Would he even exist?

“Where am I?”, a female voice asked and Albus very slowly realised that it came out of his own mouth. Startled he reached up to touch his lips, confusion settling over him. What in Merlin’s name...?

He lowered his gaze to glance down at himself when a strand of silvery blue hair fell into his vision. He jumped slightly, immediate panic settling over him. What the hell? This was Delphi’s hair, no doubt about it... But... _what?_

He grasped it, running his fingers through it, it slightly tugged on his head. Then he looked down on himself for the first time and felt like his heart missed a beat. This wasn’t his body. This was _wrong._ Dumbfounded, he ran his hands down his chest, very clearly feeling two curves under this thin striped gown he was wearing, followed by a slim body, a _female_ body. He didn’t know for sure but he had a very horrifying suspicion to whom it belonged to... 

But how was this possible? How the _hell_ was that possible? He swallowed, regarding his hands and arms, looking very much different from his own body. This was disturbing. And very, very wrong. 

“In Azkaban. Where you belong.”

_Azkaban_? He was in Azkaban? Of course, the bars, the waves crashing, the two men in front of his... cell? They had to be Aurors. 

“What... what year is it?”

His voice sounding like hers... He shuddered slightly, he didn’t understand. What happened, how did that happen...? 

The two Aurors exchanged glances.

“Two thousand twenty.” 

He nodded slowly. So they were back in the present. They managed to catch Delphi then. And somehow, he was trapped in her body now. Was that even possible? Apparently. 

Wait. If he was in Delphi’s body where was she? Where was _his_ body? Did they... switch? Alone the thought was horrifying. He silently cursed himself to not have paid any more attention in Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Was that some kind of curse? Was it dark magic? And what was he supposed to do now? Another thought came to his mind. If they switched, if Delphi was in his body, where was he? Was he at home with his family? At Hogwarts with Scorpius? Would they notice something was wrong with him? What if not? What was Delphi’s plan? Did she... did she want to hurt someone? His father? Scorpius? He had to do something, anything, he needed to warn them...

Albus took a deep breath, slowly getting to his feet, staggering towards the bars. He needed to try it. Even though the possibility that they would believe anything he said was pretty much non existing. 

“Please... I... I need to talk to–“

“Back!” One of the men stuck his wand through the bars, aiming at him. “Don’t come any closer.” 

Albus raised his hands, he didn’t mean any harm... But how should he make them believe him when he looked like Voldemort’s daughter? 

“Please. I need to talk to my– to Harry Potter.”

The other man scoffed, brows furrowing. Albus’ eyes darted down to his wand, he swallowed anxiously. He wasn’t even armed, how was he supposed to do anything? He needed to get them to believe him... 

“Harry Potter? Impossible. Why should we allow you that?”

“Because... something is wrong. I’m not... I’m not Delphi, I’m not Voldemort’s daughter!”

The men exchanged a glance, then shook their heads, one of them scoffed. 

“We’re not falling for that. Now, back to your bed and not another word.” 

Albus shook his head, taking a step forward. They needed to give him a chance... God, what if Delphi actually tried to hurt someone? If in this very moment she was with Scorpius or his mum or dad or siblings, they trusted her blindly and she mercilessly cast the Killing Curse at one of them? 

“Listen to me. I’m not who you think I am. Delphi cast some kind of spell–“

“Not. Another. Word.” The Auror waved his wand at him, and Albus felt his tongue getting heavy, no sound coming out of his throat. No, why wouldn’t they listen? This was important, if they wouldn’t listen then... he didn’t know what would happen, but definitely nothing good! If Delphi was free, capable of going wherever she wanted and possessing a wand, it was only a matter of time until someone died...

_Please_ , he tried to say but no sound came out, he took another step towards the bars, _she’s me, this is wrong!_

One of the men mumbled something and a second later Albus was pulled back by an invisible force, bound at hands and feet. He stumbled back and fell ungently on his bottom. Great, now he wasn’t only silenced but bound as well... Trying to struggle free he sat up again, scuttling closer to the bars again.

His lips mouthed a silent: _“Please, listen._ ” This was bad... If no one would listen, if no one knew that he wasn’t Delphi... this would end really badly.

The guards turned their backs to him, began strolling past the other cells. 

Albus stared after them, slowly shaking his head. No, they couldn’t leave, they had to notice–! In panic he glanced around for something he could use to draw their attention to him again. The cell was almost empty, except for the little bucket he supposed should serve as a toilet. 

He crawled over to it, kicking it with his legs. It toppled over, rolling to the wall. It wasn’t very loud, he clenched his teeth. _Damn it_. What else was there? A sink. He tried to get to his feet, using the wall, it was more difficult than he first through. 

When he eventually managed to stand, he hopped over and bent down to pick up the metal bucket, banging it against the sink. One time, two times, then again and again until it slipped out of his hand and rolled into the other corner of the cell. He groaned tonelessly in annoyance, flopping down to his knees, glaring at the two men peeking through the bars.

“This won’t get you anywhere, girl. Better not ask for it too much, or we’re forced to use even harder methods.”

“Should have gotten the Dementor’s Kiss right away...”, the other Auror mumbled grimly, Albus swallowed hardly. _Dementor’s Kiss_? Was that what was awaiting him? Was he only waiting for his death in this cell?

He slowly made his way over to the bars, gesturing to his throat and making a praying gesture, hoping they would at least allow him to say one sentence. 

“We can’t–“

In that moment a sound further down the corridor sounded, it almost sounded like a scream, Albus flinched. One of the guards sighed, nudging his friends arm.

“I’ll take it, you can talk to Voldemort’s daughter.”

He disappeared and the remaining Auror stepped to the bars, watching him with a deep frown. Albus wildly gestured to his mouth, pleading.

“What do you want to say?”, he sighed deeply annoyed, and with a flick of his wand, Albus’ voice returned to his throat. Okay, he needed to think about his words, he needed them to believe him. But _how_?

“Please. Hear me out. I am not Voldemort’s daughter, I’m not Delphi. I’m Albus Potter. She... she switched our bodies or something, I don’t know... But I do know that wherever she is now people are in terrible danger! My dad– Harry Potter, he needs to be informed! He can tell you–“

The Auror burst out into loud laughter. Albus gaped at him, shutting his mouth. He didn’t believe him. What else was he supposed to do? He was telling the truth, they needed to believe him! He was sure Delphi could play his role exceptionally good, they’d never notice it wasn’t him...

“Really funny, aren’t you? And you expect me to believe that?”

“Yes! Because otherwise–“ Albus paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. He didn’t want to scream at them, it probably wouldn’t exactly improve his situation. Nor his credibility.

“Listen. It could be she’s trying to kill Harry Potter. Please, believe me. I’m his son, I’m not Voldemort’s daughter, please!”

“Very clever, I must say. Trying to convince me she put some kind of spell on you that made you switch bodies. Very creative. But I won’t fall for that.”

“It’s not a trick! It’s the truth! Please, she’s dangerous, I’ve seen her _kill_ –!”

“Enough!”, the Auror bellowed, Albus winced and stumbled back. He was frightening; he was an Auror after all, a guard at Azkaban, he wouldn’t hesitate to attack him. He briefly wondered if his father could be this frightening as well. But if he’d be here instead of this Auror maybe he would believe him. He had to convince him, surely he could tell his dad something only he, as his son, knew. If they would only let him talk to him...

“Please...”, he tried again, trying to ignore how desperate and weird his voice sounded. He only remembered Delphi’s voice as terribly frightening.

“Please let me talk to my father– Harry Potter!”

“Your father is Lord Voldemort, you can’t trick me, girl! Stop trying, I won’t fall for it. Now, back to the wall and not another one of these ridiculous lies! Or I’m afraid we have to hold your trial earlier.”

_Trial_? He was going to have a trial– or rather Delphi?

A spark of hope flamed inside him. Maybe his dad would be there. Surely Hermione would be there as Minister for Magic. She’d listen to him, she simply had to... She would notice he wasn’t Delphi but her nephew.

“Trial? When’s that?”

He probably sounded a bit too relieved about that, because the Auror took a step closer, his grey eyes narrowed.

“Don’t get your hopes up. All that’s gonna be decided there is if they’ll get the Dementor’s back, especially for you. The chances are not bad.”

Albus gaped at him. Bring back the Dementors? For him– for Voldemort’s daughter? They couldn’t do that, not as long as he was her, he wouldn’t stand that...

“D-Dementors?”

“Exactly. I doubt they’ll affect you, there can’t be much of a soul left in you.”

Albus frantically shook his head. They couldn’t do that. Hermione would never allow that. Would she?

“Will... will Hermione– the Minister for Magic be there? Or Harry Potter...?”, he tried hopefully, that was his last hope.

“You’ll see. Enjoy your last two weeks with human guards.”

Two weeks? This trial would be in two weeks? Delphi could kill his whole family in that time... Wasn’t there more he could do? Wasn’t there _anything_?

“At... at least warn my father! Warn Harry Potter! Tell him, he has to talk to his son, tell him there’s something wrong with his–!”

The Auror waved his wand and his voice got stuck in his throat, Albus had to silently watch him walk away, shaking his head in disbelief. No... no, they had to believe him... He grabbed the bars, rattling on them until there came an annoyed groan from the cell next to him and he quickly stumbled back to the mattress.

Sinking down on it, he slowly realized what happened. And in what a situation he was. He was trapped in a building full of Death Eaters, trapped in Delphi’s body while she was presumably in his own at Hogwarts or at home. She could be very convincing, he knew that, they wouldn’t suspect a thing. Maybe... maybe Scorpius would. _Scorpius_. God, he was in terrible danger... He could only hope she wouldn’t hurt him to not reveal her cover. But what was she trying to achieve with that? Was she simply trying to escape Azkaban? Or trying to get her revenge on Harry? Did this spell end after some time? He doubted it, she was too clever for that...

He glanced down on himself, something he had tried to avoid for the past minutes. These prison clothes he was wearing were thin and the wind was cold, he shuddered, wrapping his arms around himself. How did he even get in that? Did they... undress him? He didn’t like that thought even if it wasn’t his body. Running his hand through his unusually long hair, he combed it out of his face, regarding his hands afterwards.

Slender fingers and black painted nails but that wasn’t even the weirdest thing about all of this... Very slowly he reached down on his body, briefly touching his chest, then quickly letting go again. This felt wrong. So wrong. Being in Delphi’s body. Seeing through her eyes, having her heart beating in his chest. Even slower he reached down further, very briefly touching in between his legs, _just to make sure_. Yup.

With a loud sigh, he fell down on his back on the hard mattress again.

If her motive was really to get revenge on his dad... how was that supposed to end? Wouldn’t she have done it by now? What if she– what if she in Albus’ body would get arrested as well? Harry Potter killed by his own son?

He swallowed, closing his eyes. That was not going to happen. They would catch her. She might be convincing and clever but his family would notice something was off. Scorpius would notice. They knew each other in and out, he would knew at instant. And he would tell, McGonagall or his dad, they would figure it out and they would come and get him, make Delphi cast the counter spell and get the real her behind bars.

His stomach turned at the thought of everything he had told Delphi through all these letter in that phase where he had been separated from Scorpius. He had trusted her blindly and she had used it all to her advantage. And was probably still using it. She knew an awfully lot about him and his dad...

He needed to believe in his family and friend that they would get him out of here. They would, together they would manage. He just needed to wait. They would figure it out. He hoped so. 

He turned to the side, it was very uncomfortable. There wasn’t even a pillow or blanket. He briefly wondered if his cell was the only one so sparely equipped, or if it was because he looked like Voldemort’s daughter.

He had read some things about Azkaban. Or, well, listened to Scorpius ramble about it. The prison was located on an island in the North Sea, built in the fifteenth century, originally guarded by Dementors that had been removed when Kingsley Shacklebolt had become Minister for Magic. Most of the Death Eaters that fought in the second war were imprisoned here, he briefly wondered if Rodolphus Lestrange, Delphi’s stepfather, was here as well. He hoped not. He didn’t want to meet him, Not when he was in Delphi’s body. Even though he doubted he was able to see anyone but his guards for the next while...

He opened his eyes again, staring at the bars and the dark hallway behind them. He could see the night sky from here, the stars were out, it wasn’t clouded. How long had he been unconscious? A day? A week maybe? How long was he here already? He didn’t know. He didn’t know if he _wanted_ to know. There was no way he could get out of here. Not without help from outside or a wand. And even if he had one, he didn’t know if he’d be able to cast a fitting spell. In contrary to Delphi he wasn’t exactly good at magic.

His stomach grumbled, for the first time he noticed he really was hungry. Would he get any food here? Something to drink? Maybe tomorrow. They wouldn’t let him starve. Hopefully. He turned back onto his back, closing his eyes, trying to fall back asleep.

After a while however there was no point in denying it. He really needed to use that bucket. This was ridiculous...

He sat back up, eyeing it lying in the corner. That was disgusting. And he didn’t know... well, he didn’t know _how_... as a girl. Shaking his head at himself, he got up, slowly moving over to it, setting it upright.

Okay. Couldn’t be that difficult. He briefly glanced over at the bars, luckily there was no guard there right now. This was weird enough. He took a breath, slowly reaching under his shirt and settling down over the bucket.

Thankfully it was easier than he thought. Bit weird and still very horrific, but he managed and quickly returned to his mattress, pulling it in the far back corner. Okay. He’d just try to get some sleep, even though he had been unconscious for an unknown amount of time, he was still very tired. Maybe it still had gotten to do something with this spell...

Sighing softly he closed his eyes, crossing his arms on his chest, trying to calm down a bit. Everything would be fine. His father would come and get him out of here. He would see Scorpius again. It would be fine.

 ***

Albus woke up with an aching back and a total loss of orientation. As soon as he spotted the metal bars to his right however he remembered everything. He was in Azkaban. And Delphi had somehow switched their bodies.

He sank back onto the mattress with a unusually female sounding groan, briefly noticing the silencing spell had apparently worn off as well as the bonds, he blinked a few times against the sun. He supposed there was nothing he could do except wait. And try to somehow convince the Aurors to let him talk to his father.

There were no guards in front of his cell however. He wondered what time it was. Would they bring food? Would they even get anything? He strolled over to the bars, trying to catch a glimpse down the corridor. Despite the sun it was still cold, he still could hear the waves crashing down on the shore, the faint mumbling of his fellow prisoners.

“The daughter of the Dark Lord, huh?”, a voice said, Albus realised it came from the cell diagonally opposite of him. He carefully peeked through the bars, spotting a disheveled man with dirty blonde hair, looking a bit older than his father. Considering he was calling Voldemort the Dark Lord probably meant he was a Death Eater. Or... had been one.

Albus swallowed. Was he going to act like Delphi would? Would he deny it?

“Behind bars. Just like the rest of us.”

He grabbed the bars with his hands, squeezing himself closer, Albus gathered all his courage to not back of to the corner of his cell and hide until this was all over.

“How is it? Being his daughter?”

Albus stared at him and the words came out before he even thought about them or why the hell he was saying that.

“I’ve never met him.”

The man stared at him, eyes scanning him, Albus swallowed. This hadn’t been a good idea. Not at all.

“But you have a lot of his power. I’ve heard you can even speak Parsel. Care to demonstrate?”

Albus felt sick. He didn’t know how. He had never spoken Parsel. Even when he was in Delphi’s body, he didn’t think he could. It was the mind that mattered, right?

“I... don’t need to prove myself in front of you”, he forced out, taking a step back. Maybe hiding in the corner wasn’t that bad of an idea after all.

“No. You don’t. I heard what they say about you.”

“What’s that?” Albus nervously rubbed his arm, looking everywhere but at him.

“You’re very powerful. You travelled back in time to bring him back. But you didn’t succeed.”

“No.” The _I didn’t_ got lost somewhere on his tongue. He couldn’t pretend to be Delphi. He didn’t want to. But maybe... maybe with the help of this man there was a tiny chance he could get to know more about this prison and maybe even try to escape. He seriously doubted that but he tried holding onto that little bit of optimism that was left in him.

“And you’ve just given up?”

“I’m in Azkaban. And unless you know of some secret way to get out of here, I’ll be sitting in this cell for the rest of my life.”

Hopefully not. Hopefully his family soon noticed something was off. Delphi was smart and witty but he hoped she would give herself away through something very simple. Like eating broccoli in front of Scorpius or calling his dad _father_. Something like that. And in the meantime he’d try to somehow survive Azkaban.

“You’re his daughter. If someone manages to escape this hell then you.”

He nodded softly. Yes, maybe Delphi would but he wouldn’t. He didn’t even have a wand. Or the knowledge. Or enough courage. _The Dementor’s Kiss_ , he remembered the Aurors words from yesterday and shuddered. Maybe that was what would happen to him if he would start a try to get out of here. And then not even Harry Potter could save him.

“I... suppose I have enough time to think about it.”

“Just make sure to get us out of here too.” The Death Eater retreated to the back of his cell and Albus breathed out in relief. He didn’t have to keep talking to him, thank goodness...

He settled back down on his mattress, wrapping his arms around himself. His stomach was hurting, probably because he was hungry. His hope they would ever bring food slowly shrunk. Maybe they’d starve the prisoners to death, now that the Dementors were gone. Did Scorpius say something about that as well? Didn’t he say something about they only got something to eat once or twice a week? He swallowed, wrapping his arms around himself. Surviving Azkaban suddenly seemed not so easy anymore.

After a while though the pain in his stomach had gotten worse and he was lying on the mattress, knees drawn up to his chest. This was not normal, was it? He had never felt like this before, but he wasn’t in his own body either. It felt like a million needles were piercings to his lower stomach, like someone grabbed his intestines and was twirling them around. Was this... had this something to do with this curse? He had never experienced such horrible pain...

Sitting up he wondered if it would get better if he’d move around the cell a bit. He slowly got up, making his way over to the opposite wall. Something felt weird. Something... down there. This wasn’t normal. Definitely not.

He hurried over to the bucket again, settling over it, biting his lip. He didn’t even dare to look, this was ridiculous. He was very very glad no one could see him like this, especially not his brother. Even though... he kind of wanted his brother to be here right now. Or anyone of his family to make sure he was not dying.

There was blood. So much blood. Why was there blood? Blood coming out of him. Out of Delphi? This was horrifying, absolutely _horrifying_. What was that? That never happened to him before... This had to be the after effects of this curse. Did that happen to Delphi in his body too? Ew...

Wait. Didn’t Lily have that as well once? He remembered her running through their house, yelling for their mum, exclaiming there was _blood_ in her underwear. Was that just a thing that happened to girls? Was that a witch thing? Would it stop again soon? He desperately hoped so, he didn't want to wake up in a puddle of blood tomorrow morning... Or even worse, ask someone for help.

He desperately wanted it to end, as well as those horrible cramps in his stomach. Why was this even happening?

He strolled over to the sink, washing his hands in the cold, dirty water, he supposed it was coming directly from the sea. Then he sat down on the mattress again, crossing is arms in front of his stomach. It did nothing to lessen the pain, so he tried taking a few deep breaths. Nothing happened really. Wasn’t there anything to make it stop?

He was almost sure there was a spell or potion, but they probably wouldn’t give it to him. Let him suffer in silence. Or her.

Hours passed and at some point Albus started wincing in pain. This was awful... He couldn’t stand this much longer. And there still was no food or water. He swallowed drily, suddenly feeling very dizzy. He needed help. But where should he get help in a prison? He blinked, feeling tears stinging in his eyes all of a sudden. He was alone he had no one. No family, no friends, no one to trust, no one that believed him. And he was in terrible pain, a feeling of nausea was building in his stomach. He wanted to get out of here. Right now. So he did the only thing that was logical to him now.

He struggled to his feet, staggering over to the bars, rattling on it.

“Hello? Help! Please, someone! I need to talk to someone!”

“What is it now?”

Albus jumped at a female voice coming from his left, quickly turned to the Auror standing in front of the cell. He swallowed at the sight. She had raised her wand, staring at him grimly through one green and one milky white eye, there was a long scar running over one side of her face. It was quite frightening, almost more than the two men from yesterday.

“I...” he swallowed, the words got stuck in his throat. He took a breath, trying again.

“I’m... bleeding.”

“Bleeding?” The Aurors eyes wandered down on him, Albus felt deeply uncomfortable. It was bad enough he was a girl, Voldemort’s daughter and now _this_. He didn’t want to be here any more. Why didn’t his dad already realize? Why didn’t Scorpius notice?

“Please... can I get anything? My stomach feels like someone plunged a knife in there...”

The Auror squinted her eyes, then gave a brief nod. Albus briefly wondered if it was because she was a woman as well and knew how that felt.

“I’ll get you a potion that’ll stop the pain and the bleeding. But that’s an exception.”

“Thank you”, Albus breathed out in relief, even managing a grateful smile. She frowned suspiciously before disappearing down the corridor. Okay. He’d get something. At least. He leaned against the wall, the pain suddenly felt a lot more bearable knowing it would stop soon. And his cell wouldn’t look like someone slaughtered a pig in there tomorrow, so that was good as well.

It didn’t take long and the Auror returned, in her gloved hands a little vial with a purplish liquid. She waved her wand at it and it floated through the bars, Albus grabbed it thankfully.

He pulled out the cork, downing it in one sip. Immediately a feeling of warmth spread through his stomach, the pain lessened and he felt... well, _clean_ again.

“Thank you so much,” he mumbled, looking up at her. She gave another brief nod and kept walking, he hurried to the bars again.

“Wait! Please.”

She stopped in her walk, not turning around.

“I’m... I know how this will sound, but please hear me out. I need someone to listen to me...”

She turned around again, her face unreadable, Albus swallowed and tried to look as honest as somehow possible.

“I am not Voldemort’s daughter. And I need to talk to Harry Potter, he’ll agree with me.”

She raised a brow.

“No? Then who are you?”

“I’m Albus Potter. Harry’s son, please you need to believe me... Delphi somehow changed our bodies when we were in that church!” Albus took a deep breath, she simply slowly shook her head.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“It’s the truth! God, just get Harry Potter here, he’ll tell you. I can tell him things only his son would know.”

The Auror slowly stepped back to his cell, Albus waited in anticipation. Maybe she’d believe him. At least give him a chance.

“Harry Potter’s son, huh? Are you trying to fool me? Do you think I’d fall for that?”

“It’s not a trick. It’s the truth. I’m not Delphi, I can’t speak Parseltongue, I can’t fly, I can’t do Dark Magic. You have to believe me! My family is in terrible danger!”

She stepped to the bars, drawing her wand. Albus carefully raised his hands, softly shaking his head to show he didn’t mean any harm. He just wanted his family to be safe, why couldn’t they just believe that? It was possible wasn’t it? Switching bodies? With dark magic, certainly.

“I know this sounds like I am– like Delphi’s trying to talk herself out of this, but you have to trust me! I’m Albus Potter! Please believe me!"

The Auror crossed her arms, furrowing her brows.

“Albus Potter, huh? I just happen to know he went back to Hogwarts only yesterday to attend the rest of the school year.”

Back to Hogwarts? So he– she was with Scorpius. His best friend would notice, he had to... His siblings too, they’d notice something was wrong. Delphi couldn’t be that good. Could she? She was capable of terrible things, she had killed someone.

“It wasn’t him. I’m him! It’s her, she swapped our bodies!”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

Albus rolled his eyes impatiently. What if Delphi was already planning her attack on Scorpius or his family or even on Hogwarts? She wouldn’t hesitate to kill again. He swallowed when his throat suddenly felt tight. What if he would get out of here only to learn that his best friend had been murdered? That his little sister wasn’t there anymore or his brother or his mother or his dad or his cousin or grandparents– Tears stung in his eyes, he tried swallowing down the lump in his throat, failing miserably.

“That’s... that’s because it’s Voldemort’s daughter! She’s... you don’t know what she’s capable of...” His voice broke, he bravely wiped away his tears, gathering all his courage he didn’t know he had and met the woman’s unlike eyes.

“I’m telling the truth. Please let me speak to my dad.”

The Aurors face remained stern. Albus wrapped his hands around the bars, looking at her pleadingly. He would beg if he had to. If it would keep those he loved safe. 

“Your dad. That would be Lord Voldemort. He’s dead.”

“No, that would be Harry Potter! Please, I beg you! I’m Albus, not Delphi! I’m telling the truth! This is not my body!”

She shook her head, rolling her eyes.

“You said it yourself. We don’t know what she’s capable of. Who tells me you’re not just a really good liar?”

Albus briefly closed his eyes, a silent tear rolled down his cheek, he didn’t bother to wipe it away.

“Nothing. Just my word.” He took a deep breath. “All... all I’m asking is to let me talk to my father. That’s everything. Just for five minutes.”

There was a silence and Albus could only hope for the best. He dared to open his eyes, glancing up at the Auror. Something had changed in her face, maybe it was because he was crying or because he was insisting on it so much, but moment later it was gone.

She turned around.

“I suggest you stop with that nonsense and prepare yourself for spending he rest of your life behind bars.”

“No...”, Albus whispered, frantically shaking his head.

“No, please! Please, let me talk to him! Please!”

He reached through the bars but was immediately repelled by an invisible force that pushed him backwards. He landed on the ground, his bottom painfully hurting. When he scrambled up again, the Auror was gone and so was his hope. 


	3. Harry

_Dear Mr Potter,_

 

_Normally we would not burden you with the behavior of our prisoners, but we feel obliged to do so because of the recent incidents. The matter is Lord Voldemort's daughter, who has been here for about two weeks. Since she is conscious, she insists she has been cursed and demands to speak to you. We would very much appreciate it if you would do so as soon as possible, before we have to resort to harder methods._

_Kind regards,_

_A. Fawcett,_

_Head of Office for the Detention of Criminals_

Deeply frowning Harry put down the letter written in neat black handwriting, eyes scanning over the words once more. She wanted to talk to him. Why? He couldn’t think of any plausible reason. She was behind bars, gotten her rightful punishment, his son was safely back at Hogwarts and slowly everything was starting to feel normal again. Well, as normal as it was with his family. So. What did she want?

He re-read the sentences again. _Cursed_. Barely three weeks ago they had caught her. She had managed to wrap his son around her finger and Malfoy‘s too, she had hexed Amos Diggory into thinking she was his niece. She was a powerful witch and an even better liar. He couldn’t believe a word coming out of her mouth, she was _his_ daughter, for God’s sake...

Alone thinking about it sent shivers all over his body. What did she want to say to him? He wouldn’t know a reason. He would even dare say he didn’t want to talk to her. There was no matter. 

She wanted to speak to him and? It wouldn’t get her out of there. Nothing would.  _Cursed_. What did that even mean? Was this another one of her games? He had enough of them.

He grabbed the letter again, halfway thinking about just ripping it into pieces when he noticed there was something written on the backside as well. He frowned, lifting it closer to his face. It seemed like there was an earlier version of her letter, but it was all scribbled out.

~~_... she keeps insisting on talking to you and claiming she isn’t Voldemort’s daughter but your son Albus. Of course this is absurd and we’ve..._ ~~

That was all he could read. He stared at the letters, eyes solely focusing the word _Albus_. She was crazy. Absolutely crazy. Pulling his son into this again. When he had been through so much, seen so many horrible things, he deserved some peace. They all did. And he was going to tell this Delphi exactly that. And if he had to set the Dementors on her again.

He apparated to the gates of Azkaban directly after breakfast, boiling with anger. Ginny hadn’t been at home, she was meeting with her brothers for a trip to South England and he didn’t tell her of the letter. She shouldn’t worry about that. It wouldn’t take long anyway.

He folded up the collar of his coat, taking a few steps towards the entrance, where an Auror was guarding. As soon as he noticed who he was he gave a brief nod, opening the gate for him to step through. He entered, eyes scanning the room. He had only been to Azkaban twice in his life, he was avoiding it whenever that was possible. It reminded him of too many horrible things.

“Excuse me?” He approached a young man behind a counter, sorting through some files with his wand, looking up at his voice.

“Good evening. I got this letter. Can you tell me what floor I need to go?”

He handed the man the letter. He stared at him for a moment, his eyes briefly flickering up to his forehead, before regarding the paper.

“That would be floor thirty-six, Mr Potter. Fawcett will be awaiting you.”

“Thank you very much.”

Harry made his way to the lift, pressing the worn button with the number thirty-six. _High security section_  was written underneath it. Fitting, he’d say. It took quite a while until he arrived, no one joined him though.

The high security section was pretty high up in the large building, he didn’t know how many prisoners were located here, but the cells were small and tightly lined up, the wind howling through the hallway was ice cold. He wouldn’t want to spend any more time here than necessary.

Most of the Death Eaters imprisoned after the second war were here, spending the rest of their days behind bars. And of course some of them hadn’t simply forgotten his face.

“If it isn’t Harry Potter himself...”

Harry briefly shot the cell next to him a glance, recognizing Thorfinn Rowle a Death Eater who had fought in the war, now looking old and tired, even though his dark eyes glared at him grimly. He kept walking. He didn’t need this.

There was a little office at the end of the corridor, he politely knocked, waiting until a female voice called “Enter!”

Opening the door he quickly stepped in, closing it behind him.

“Mr Potter. That was quicker than I thought.”

Audrey Fawcett was sitting behind her desk, looking up from her papers as he approached. He gave a brief nod, trying to glance around unobtrusively. The office was small, one wall was covered by a shelf with a lot of drawers, there was a tiny window leading to the hallway behind it, lying on the ground was a trampled old rug.

“You wanted me to come here.”

“Right.” She got up, rounding the desk, a serious expression on her face, crossing her arms.

“This Delphini Lestrange or whatever her last name is keeps insisting on talking to you. We’ve bound her for a few times but decided it was enough when she started claiming she is your son instead of Voldemort’s daughter. She even carved your name into the wall after we took her voice.”

Harry frowned, that sounded like she was quite serious about that. What could she possibly want to say? No matter what it was, it wouldn’t lessen her punishment. Nothing would. Her crazy claimings, lies and demands wouldn’t do anything.

“Where is she?”, he asked, wanting to get this over with. Fawcett gestured to the door and lead the way, he followed after.

“Down here. The trial will be in a week.”

There still was going to be a trial for her? For what? What did they want to decide there? She would stay here for the rest of her life, wouldn’t she?

“Right there on the left. Shall I come with you?”

“I will manage alone, thank you. It won’t take long.”

He was halfway out of the door when she stopped him again.

“Mr Potter.”

“Yes?”

“She...What she is saying... I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve never seen someone being so good at lying before. She was crying and begging me to get to talk to you.”

Harry softly shook his head. She was good at lying, of course she was with parents like hers. He wouldn’t fall for it.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s... I just don’t think the daughter of Lord Voldemort would be capable of that.” 

“We know what she is capable of. She murdered an innocent student, she lied to my son and his best friend for the longest time.”

She gave a very brief shrug, gesturing down the hallway in a see-for-yourself kind of way. Harry nodded, leaving her behind, clenching his teeth. He wouldn’t fall for it. She was Voldemort’s daughter for Merlin’s sake...

The cell was located down the corridor, it was quite breezy here despite the warmth outside. He didn’t pay attention to the other cells, nor to the Death Eaters inside them mumbling his name. Heading straight to her cell he grabbed the bars, staring through them.

She was curled up on the mattress, looking fairly miserable, hugging her knees, eyes tightly closed. He didn’t feel the least bit of pity at this sight. This was what she deserved. Loneliness and pain and darkness. No mercy in the slightest way. He let his gaze wander through the cell, indeed scratched into the wall were the words _Harry Potter_ , barely visible.

Harry cleared his throat, raising his voice.

“You wanted to talk to me.”

She jumped slightly, eyes widening at his sight. Then she stumbled to her feet, storming to the bars. Harry didn’t back off. She was the one behind bars, she couldn’t do anything to him.

Her voice was hoarse and trembling when she spoke. Or sobbed.

“Dad, thank God! Oh, I’m so glad you’re here, you need to listen to me, okay? _Please_ listen to me!”

She grabbed his hands on the bars, clasping them tightly, as of she feared he’d go away again. Harry stared right back at her.

“I’m not Delphi, Dad, I’m Albus! I’m your son! She switched our bodies when we were in that church in Godric’s Hollow! I don’t know how, but she did it! And now she’s at Hogwarts with Scorpius and he’s in terrible danger! Please, believe me!”

There were tears running down her pale cheeks, she let them flow, looking at him with an expression of utter despair. She was shaking, her eyes pleading, she squeezed his hands.

Harry swallowed. This was different. He didn’t expect her to cry like this. And her words... her voice breaking like this. He had never seen her like that before. Of course he hadn’t, he had only seen this evil, merciless side of her, the side that killed this innocent student, that tortured Draco’s son and was Voldemort’s daughter. This however... it just didn’t fit together.

“Is he alright? Scorpius? Did you hear anything from Hogwarts? Are James and Lily okay? What about mum? Did she try to hurt anyone of you?”

Harry slowly shook his head, deeply furrowing his brows, staring into her grey eyes. This couldn’t be. She had to be lying.

“Dad? Please, don’t–“

“Stop.” He raised his hand and she stopped talking, shut her mouth. He let out a sigh, rubbing his eyes in distress. Confusion settled over him, anger too. How dared she to say things like that? This just wasn’t right. He should leave immediately, leave her telling these ridiculous stories to herself.

“My son is safely at Hogwarts. I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve with this but it won’t work with me. I know my son.”

Delphi vigorously shook her head.

“Then you know that wasn’t me who went to Hogwarts! Please, I’m telling the truth, Dad! It’s me, Albus... I’m your youngest son, I’m in Slytherin and my best friend is Scorpius Malfoy... I’m horrible at school and I get bullied and I hate Hogwarts, a-and you once said to me that you wish I weren’t your son. I know now that you didn’t mean it like that but–“

“Stop.” Harry’s voice got louder, he balled his fists. Albus had told her all that and now she was using it to her advantage. She was mercilessly lying to him, make him believe he had imprisoned his own son. It proved once again what cruel methods she was capable of. How crazy she really was.

“You can’t be my son. All these things... Albus told you of that. I won’t believe you.”

She bit her lip, kept shaking her head, tears running steadily down her face.

“Please. I’m telling the truth. I am your son. We switched. Please, Dad...”

He winced at her calling him that. This was ridiculous. He had never heard of a spell like that. Why was he even thinking about it? She was lying, that was it. It simply couldn’t be. He should go.

“I want to get out of here...”, she then whispered, voice breaking again, mopping at her eyes with her sleeve. Like Albus always did. Stop. Stop. Harry shook his head at himself.

“Please, I beg you... Believe me. Trust me. Get me out of here and I can prove it. We can go to Hogwarts and then you’ll question her–“

“You’re not going to get out of here”, he cut her off, ignoring the rest of her sentence, even though his head was already spinning. _Question her_. That was a good idea indeed. No. He mentally slapped himself. He was actually considering it again. She wasn’t telling the truth. He really should know better than that.

“What...? Then... then ask me something only I would now– only Albus would know! Please!”

But Harry firmly shook his head, taking a step back. He was done with this. Done with her.

“I won’t play your games with you. Goodbye.”

Her eyes widened in panic, she reached through the bars and when the Protection Spell pushed her back,she stumbled up again, hurrying forward.

“No! No, don’t go! Don’t, please, Dad, believe me! Believe me, that’s all I ask...”

He scoffed, furious at himself for letting her hold him up for so long. He never wanted to see this girl again.

“Tell Scorpius! Please, warn Scorpius! Tell him he should be careful, tell him something is wrong, _please_ –!”

“Enough!”, he bellowed and she winced and flinched back. He took a deep breath, raising his finger at her.

“Stop with these games, Delphi. It won’t do anything. Nothing, you hear me. You’ll rot here for the rest of your days. Like your family.”

She shook her head, her silver hair flying, her grey eyes looking desperate, full of tears. Her eyes. Those weren’t the eyes of his son. This wasn’t the same look he had given him pleading to not separate him from Scorpius. That had been entirely different. It wasn’t the same despair and fear. It couldn’t be. 

This was a wicked game of hers and he wouldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t hurt his family again. He wouldn’t forget who she was. Voldemort’s daughter.

“Dad...” She whispered, hand reaching out for him, slowly shaking her head.

He stared at her for a moment that lasted a little too long, then he turned around, turning his back to her. It was to laugh at.

She had gotten to know Albus so terribly well, adapting even the sad hopelessness in his eyes, all to trick the people around her. But he wouldn’t fall for it. He wouldn’t see his own son in her.

“I swear to you, it’s me. You...y-you taught me to sit on a broom as a child! James laughed at me when I kept falling down but you always cheered me up!”

Harry pressed his lips together. Albus had trusted her so very much, telling her that. And she was using all that like that. Using him.

“Once at Christmas–“ She continued, voice stumbling over her own words, she was talking so fast. “You got me a chocolate Santa with nuts in it, but we didn’t know I was allergic to nuts and my head went really red and I couldn’t breathe and mum almost had a panic attack. Aunt Hermione fixed it with a spell. You ate the rest of the chocolate.”

Harry very slowly turned around to her, eyes wide. Why would his son tell Delphi that? Could it be she had somehow... read his mind? Was she able to do that? God, who knows, she was Voldemort’s daughter! She was unbelievably powerful, surely she was capable of that.

That was disgusting. Reading someone’s mind, he knew all about that.  She really was evil.

“You were messing with my son’s head, how do I know you’ve not just read his thoughts, huh?”

“No... no, of course not, when should she have done that? And why should I think of that?”

She was stepping close to the bars again, slower this time as if she feared she would scare him away. Harry stood where he was, not coming closer, not going away either.

“I know this because I’m Albus. Your son. I... you always have to tell me twice to go to bed, because I stay awake so long. Mum always makes eggs with sausages for breakfast and she burns it most of the time, but we all eat it nonetheless. Scorpius... Scorpius always double-ties his shoelaces because he once tripped over it and fell down the big staircase. He twisted his ankle and I had to half-carry him to Madam Pomfrey...”

There was a faint smile on her lips now, something that reminded him _so much_  of Albus it hurt. It couldn’t be, his son was at Hogwarts. Safe. This wasn’t him.

“Stop...”, he mumbled a third time, this time much more quiet. She continued, approaching the bars.

“You told me no matter what house I’d be in you’d be proud of me at the start of my first year. And still I was so scared to write you that I was sorted into Slytherin... and everything was so difficult and... and... remember when I got my wand? We were at Ollivanders, you, me and James. Mum and Lily were in Uncle Ron’s and George’s shop. And I’ve tried about a hundred wands before I got the right one. I accidentally threw half of the shelf at James when I first waved it.”

She couldn’t know that. Could she? She wasn’t making this up, he knew it happened exactly like this. Even if she had somehow read his son’s thoughts, he doubted she had memorized all these details like that. Was there another way? Was she able to take a look at Albus’ memory at any point? Was this dark magic? It had to be. This couldn’t be the truth.

“How do you know all this?”

He refused to believe it. If he would fall for it then his family, especially Albus would be in danger again. If he’d believe her and set her free or, even worse, bring her to Hogwarts, then everything would start again. And it would be his fault again.

Delphi sighed softly, leaning her forehead against the bars, looking very exhausted.

“Because I was there. Because I am Albus, Dad... please, believe me.”

Harry couldn't stand it anymore. He was done with being lied to. And this– this was too much.

He briefly closed his eyes, turning his back to her. He had to leave. Leave her. 

And think about this.

“D-Dad? Please... don’t go. Don’t leave me... Come on! I’m your son!”

Harry clenched his jaw, shaking his head and took another step towards the exit. She wasn’t. It couldn’t be.

“Dad! Please! DAD!”

He shook his head, accelerating his steps. He needed to get out of here. He want past Fawcett’s office, not casting one look inside. He wanted to get home. Out of this horrible cold building, away from the yelling and her sobs that echoed behind him. Home to his wife. To his family. And forget this ever happened.

***

Harry let himself fall in the couch with a deep sigh, almost dripping some of the hot chocolate he had made himself on his jeans. Ginny would be back soon and he was still debating if he should tell her about what happened. It concerned her in a way. But he didn’t want her to worry. Not when there possibly wasn’t anything to it.

He knew his son. He had spoken to him the days before he went to school. And he had been as he always was. A bit more anxious maybe, but he supposed that was normal after everything that happened. His wife didn’t notice anything either. And he was their son. They would know if it wasn’t, wouldn’t they? Yes, Delphi was capable of tricking people like this, like she just did– tried to do with him, but couldn’t it be the other way around? Could it be she was... playing his son? He would have noticed, wouldn’t he? After twenty years of working as an Auror he noticed things like these. And this was about his family, he couldn’t let that fact cloud his judgement. No matter what she was saying or who she was claiming to be– it was not true.

He took a sip of his hot chocolate, staring into the empty fireplace, suddenly wishing very hard for his wife to just appear in it.

Should he write to Albus? Just ask him how he was doing? Make sure he was okay? Or maybe he could inform Draco about it, maybe he could write Scorpius and ask if he noticed anything unusual about his best friend.

_No_ , why was he thinking about this? He had to stop racking his brain about this. It was nonsense, it wasn’t possible. This was his son, for Merlin’s sake and he wouldn’t have let that happened. It just _couldn't be._ Period.

He couldn’t be more glad when a _whooshing_ noise sounded and the fireplace lit up with green flames and his wife stumbled out of it, Ron followed after, dragging an enormous amount of ashes onto their carpet.

“Evening Harry.”

“You’re home already?” Ginny asked with a surprised smile, rushing over to him to press a quick kiss on his forehead. He nodded, trying to look like everything was fine, forcing a little smile. Ginny however saw right through him. Her smile disappeared.

“Oh no. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing”, he lied, “how was your day?”

She glanced at her brother and her grin briefly returned.

“Great. I bought you some Fizzing Whizbees, since you love them so much.”

She held up a little bag, Harry took them, opening it instantly. Ginny chuckled.

“You’re welcome.”

“Thank you”, he managed a smile, shoving one into his mouth. Just what he needed now.

“Been having trouble at the Ministry again?”, Ron asked, apparently noticing there was something off as well. Harry glanced at him, debating if he should tell them what was going on. It wasn’t good to keep things like this to himself, he knew that, and he didn’t like lying to his best friend and his wife either, but if there wasn’t any truth to it, he shouldn’t spread the rumors even further and get them in danger all over again. So he bit his tongue, vaguely shrugging his shoulders.

“Nothing important. The usual stress.”

He felt Ginny’s eyes on him, trying to ignore her doubtful gaze. Later maybe.

“Alright. Hey, Hermione and I are having a party next week, you’re obviously invited. Ginny too. You know, we have our twentieth anniversary...”, he ended a bit sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. Harry smiled softly, nodding.

“Of course, we’ll be there.”

“Great. I need to go now, though. Promised to take her out for dinner.”

He grimaced, shrugging his shoulders, Ginny softly hit his arm, shaking her head.

“You should be glad she married you.”

“Oh, I am. I’ll see you, Ginny. Harry.”

“See you, Ron.”

He staggered into the fireplace, giving them a wave before disappearing in a whoosh of green flames. As soon as he was gone, Ginny plopped down on the couch next to him, crossing her legs, eyes drilling into his head.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing”, he immediately said again, avoiding her looks. Ginny scoffed.

“Sure. Out with it.”

She grabbed his hand that was resting on his leg, nudging his ribs. Harry sighed softly, of course she didn’t believe him. He never managed to hide anything from his wife. His thoughts wandered back to his visit in Azkaban, he squeezed her hand, placing the Whizbees on the table.

“Well... you’re right. I got a letter this morning, from Azkaban.”

“ _Azkaban_? Why would they write you?”

He turned to her, meeting her eyes.

“Because it was about Voldemort’s daughter.”

She grimaced, brows furrowing.

“And what?”

Harry’s stomach didn’t feel good at the memory, the image of Delphi’s desperate eyes kept pushing back to the front of his mind. Maybe it was good getting it all out. Maybe Ginny could help him figure out what to think of that.

“And... she claims to be cursed.”

“Does she?” Ginny shifted uncomfortably, clearly not liking where the conversation was going. Harry swallowed and forced himself to get out the next words.

“Yes. She said... she said she’s Albus and that Delphi has swapped their bodies.”

Ginny looked at him bewildered.

“What? She–“

“I know, Ginny...”, he cut her off before she could tell him how ridiculous this all was and that he couldn’t possibly believe that. “She’s a liar, she is corrupt and she won’t hesitate to go this far to even pull our family into this.”

“She said she switched with Albus? With our son?”

Ginny actually sounded angry, he couldn’t blame her. His son deserved some peace, his whole goddamn family did. Why did it never stop? He would have thought after having Voldemort‘s daughter behind bars it would be all over, but no, apparently not. It never would.

“Yes. She... started crying, _sobbing_ , telling me all sorts of things only Albus could know, I think she read his mind or something, I know they were in touch for a while...”

“She says she is our son?!”

Ginny jumped up and Harry promptly pulled her down again.

“Don’t– she’s lying and she’ll get punished for that. I’ll make sure of that. It’s just...” He sighed, rubbing his eyes, frowning deeply. He couldn’t forget the way she had spoken of her (or Albus’) past. Of Scorpius. How incredibly honest she had looked.

“She... was so _convincing_. She even told me of that time she– Albus accidentally ate nuts and couldn’t breathe anymore and how Hermione had saved him. And what I said to him last summer...”

Ginny narrowed her eyes, gaze switching in between his.

“She’d know all this if she’s capable of doing Legilimency...”

“I know. I don’t believe her”, he said firmly, maybe to convince himself a little bit. His son was at Hogwarts. Not Azkaban.

“It was just... shocking. I mean, I knew she was cruel but this... that was too much. I saw so much of Albus in her when she said these things, it’s like she adapted half of Al’s personality...”

Ginny was chewing on her lip, she crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking very thoughtful and angry. 

Harry set his empty mug on the table, sighing softly, shaking his head, hoping it would clear itself of these doubting thoughts.

“It’s all a trick. She wants to get out of there and she doesn’t care what crazy methods she has to use.”

His wife nodded lightly, then averted her eyes to the little table in front of the couch where a copy of the Daily Prophet was lying. The title page very greatly said: _Potter’s and Malfoy's sons to return to Hogwarts after adventure involving Time-Traveling and Voldemort’s daughter_ all over it. They hadn’t shown it Albus and together with Draco had agreed to not let their children know the newspaper were writing about it. He doubted it would work, but it was worth a try.

“It’s ridiculous...” Ginny mumbled, eyes fixed on the paper. “We talked to Albus before he went back to Hogwarts. And he was himself. I comforted him after a nightmare, I stayed until he was back asleep. She could never adapt his role so quickly, couldn’t she?”

“Of course not”, Harry muttered, she would have had to plan this long beforehand.

“We know our son, Harry.”

Ginny slid closer to him, holding onto his hand. He gave a slow nod. She was right. He knew Albus. Didn’t he?

“And we would notice if something’s wrong.”

He nodded again. His wife squeezed his hand, sighing softly. For a while no one of them said anything. Harry’s head was spinning with confusion and worry. Ginny had said exactly what he wanted her to say, but there were still doubts in his head. It was stupid, he kept telling himself that. It couldn’t be. And yet... Something told him something was wrong. And apparently Ginny thought so too.

“Harry”, she said, turning to him, clasping his hand tightly. He met her eyes, hers were determined, he swallowed. He knew that look and he knew what it meant. He didn’t want to believe it, his stomach turned.

“If this is true...” Her voice was full of concern, Harry continued:

“...then our son is locked in Azkaban while Voldemort’s daughter is inside of Hogwarts.” 

 


	4. Delphi

 

“Do you think Slughorn will notice that I accidentally put in two Billywig stings instead of one?”, Scorpius mumbled anxiously, slowly stirring in his cauldron. The Professor was at the front, showing a Ravenclaw girl how to stir the potion correctly.

Delphi studied the Slytherin boy carefully. He actually looked worried although he was smiling with slight amusement, peeking into their cauldron. She couldn’t care less if this potion was correct or if this idiot of a Professor would notice. All she cared about was playing this part as convincing as possible until she finally got her revenge. Not on this boy, she had no use for him. But Harry Potter. She couldn’t wait to make him suffer for not letting her see her father. It was his fault she was who she was, she never got to know her parents. And he would pay for that. She wouldn’t just kill him, that would be too merciful. She would make him suffer until he begged for mercy, make him do things he never thought he’d be capable of and then maybe she would finally and very slowly end his miserable life.

“Albus? I think they’re as small as they can get...”

Delphi snapped out of her thoughts, looking up at Scorpius who was innocently pointing at the bowl in her hands. She glanced down, realizing she had been carelessly crushing scarab beetles in the last two minutes, reducing them to nothing but grayish dust. She swore to herself that would happen to Harry Potter too.

“Oops. Can you put them in...?”

She handed him the bowl, he poured it inside, kept stirring while trying to open the book with the other hand. She watched him failing at it for about a minute before helping.

“Need help?” Brushing her hand against Scorpius’ for longer than necessary she took the book and skipped to the right page. From the corner of her eyes she noticed him swallowing, shyly eyeing her, suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

She wasn’t only stuck in the body of Harry Potter’s son, she had to keep up with Scorpius Malfoy’s constant affection for his only friend. She had always known they were very close and Albus’ feelings for his friend had become very clear through all the letters he had sent her but she wouldn’t have thought Scorpius would ever get around to realize he liked his best friend like that as well. And now she was forced to act out Albus’ part, trying to charm Scorpius whenever she could, playing his best friend that wanted to be more than that. Every time he glanced at her for a little too long, whenever their arms brushed together, she suppressed the strong urge to push him away and scowl at him and shatter his delicate hopes and dreams into a million pieces.

But no, she was Albus Potter, who was helplessly crushing on his best friend and she had to keep on pretending until she got her chance for revenge. And how _good_ it would feel. She couldn’t wait to set an end to Harry Potter’s life. And once that was done, there was nothing that could stop her making her father proud.

“That looks about right. What do you think, Al?”

Delphi blinked and brought her attention to the potion bubbling in front of them. It was grey sort of with a faint green gleam and smelled a bit like grass. It looked disgusting.

“Looks good. Better than the last one. I’ll just let you do everything from now on.”

Scorpius grinned at her, before turning back to their potion, continued stirring in it.

“Call me Scorpius Malfoy, _the Potion Master_. At your service.”

He saluted, Delphi forced an Albus-y grin. How very funny he was. She had no idea why Albus was so fond of him.

Three weeks since that incident in Godric’s Hollow happened. At the last second she had cast that spell she had read once in a book about the darkest kinds of magic, never knowing if it would actually work. It had been her last chance to win and it really had worked. She had switched bodies with Harry Potter’s son. Seconds before one of theirs spells had hit her and knocked her unconscious. Or rather – knocked Harry’s son unconscious. She smiled at the memory. It was good, but sadly she didn’t have enough time to savor that moment, having to act out being the scared misunderstood boy that had been scarred by Voldemort’s daughter for his life. Harry Potter himself had given her– or him, a ten minute long speech about how none of this was his fault and how he wasn’t blaming him for anything and could always talk to him if something was wrong or he needed help with anything. It took all of her self control to not steal his wand out of his pocket and fire the Killing Curse at him throughout the whole time.

But Harry Potter had believed her display of his youngest son, she felt quite charmed about it. Apparently he was feeling too guilty to notice the daughter of the Dark Lord was playing his son. It wasn’t too difficult. She knew Albus Potter after all. He had told her plenty, had trusted her relentlessly. Now it was all gonna pay off.

And it wasn’t just that Albus had poured his heart out to her, she was quite good at Legilimency too. Her mother’s husband had taught her and she learned the rest by herself, perfecting it until the target didn’t even know someone was reading their mind. It was quite effective, especially to get information. It was how she found out about Scorpius’ crush on Rose Granger-Weasley, about his nightmares and his love for books and his best friend. Harry Potter had been surprisingly easy as well. Most of his brain consisted of guilt for letting all of that happen to his son and the urge to protect his family. He thought about it non-stop, he clearly loved his children very much. Same with his wife, she could tell she was glad it was over. She thought that it was over. 

But it wasn’t. Not as long as Harry Potter was still alive.

The bell rang and Scorpius hurried to grab his bag, handing her Albus’ as well. He probably wanted to get out of here before Slughorn would come up and try talking to them.

“Let’s go...”

She followed him out of the classroom, down one of the long corridors of Hogwarts. She unobtrusively glanced around, Hogwarts never failed to amaze her. As a child she had always wanted to go but her guardian hadn’t allowed it, had preferred to teach her at home. Now she understood why, but the amazement hadn’t lessened. She would change some of the subjects though. Who needed Muggle Studies? Divination. Defense Against the Dark Arts. She would cross out that _Defense Against_. And the houses of course. Gryffindor, stuffed with arrogance and so full of itself, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff too many Muggleborns, even Slytherin, the house her parents had been in, had become a folk of weak, Muggle-loving idiots. She’d definitely would change that. Kick out all the Mudbloods or imprison them and then have a school full of powerful strong _pure blooded_  wizards and witches. Just like it should have been.

“You know Albus, I haven’t had a single nightmare since you and I are back together.” Scorpius’ voice was quiet, honest, he glanced at her from the side. Delphi turned her head to him, tilting her head in a worried way.

“No? That’s... good, isn’t it?”

“That’s great. Thanks for... you know, being there.” He chuckled awkwardly, eyes facing the floor. She smiled, softly nudging his side.

“You’re welcome. I like being back with you too, y’know. Have you back. It was unbearable without you”, she added, meeting his eyes for a few seconds before looking away again. Scorpius was blushing slightly and she bit back a triumphant smirk. He was hopeless.

“Was it...?” He mumbled softly, fumbling with the strap of his bag, she nodded determined.

“Yup. Lot of family bonding with my father. He insists on me writing him regularly from now on.” She grimaced, Scorpius snorted.

“And will you?”

“If I find something interesting to write about.”

Perhaps she really should write him. She briefly wondered if the real Albus had already woken up again. What he would do to get out of Azkaban. Poor boy, he was probably worried sick about his family and friend. Well, he should be. This wasn’t going to end pleasant.

She suppressed a grin at the thought of him trying to convince the Aurors that he wasn’t himself. They’d never believe that.

“Yeah... My dad hasn’t written a single letter since we’re back here...”

Scorpius frowned slightly, as if he realized just now. Delphi glanced at him, he actually looked quite sad about that. She knew about his family of course, about his mother who had died a year ago, his father who had once been a Death Eater and how close their bond was now. She knew how much his father meant to Scorpius, and she would use that to her advantage sometime, surely.

“He’s probably busy”, she tried to assure him, because that was what Albus would do. “I’m sure there’s a lot going on with the press and everything. Could be they found out about the time turner, right? The one your dad had.”

Scorpius looked horrified.

“W-what are they gonna do?”

Delphi had to pull herself together to not laugh at him and instead remain a slightly worried expression. Chances weren’t bad they imprisoned his father if they found out what he had been hiding. And what else there was in his basement. And poor Scorpius would be all alone...

“They could question him... maybe he gets a trial.”

Scorpius swallowed visibly, clearly not liking that thought. Delphi tried to keep up a serious face. He’d deserve that. As well as his father, the blood traitor. Sympathizing with Harry Potter...

“D’you think so?”

She shrugged carelessly.

“But... my dad technically didn’t do anything wrong. It was good that he kept the time turner or we could’ve never have stopped Delphi.”

He looked thoughtful suddenly, Delphi slowly nodded. He was right with that, unfortunately. One more reason she would celebrate if Draco Malfoy went to prison. Although she was seriously doubting that would happen. He helped Harry Potter stop Voldemort’s daughter after all. And wasn’t it in Potter’s hands if he went to Azkaban or not? Well, she supposed, if he was dead he couldn’t decide that anymore...

“Right. We probably would both be dead if he hadn’t kept it. I’m sure your dad will be fine.”

“I hope so...”, Scorpius sighed, starting to play with his bag again. Delphi put her hand on his shoulder, softly rubbing.

“I’m sure.”

The blond boy smiled a little, melting into her touch a little, she smiled back.

They entered the Slytherin common room, she pulled Scorpius along to one of the couches, settling down on it, crossing her legs.

“Homework?”, Scorpius asked, eyes shining, Delphi wondered what was wrong with him that he wanted to do that nonsense voluntarily.

“Sure.”

Scorpius got out his book and quill, began scribbling something down, she watched him unobtrusively. She was pretty good at reading body language and Scorpius wasn’t exactly restrained in that matter. He kept casting her glances, smiling whenever she met his eyes, leaning ever so slightly closer to her. He seemed like he had very well gotten over everything that happened. Over seeing someone die, over experiencing the Cruciatus Curse. But deep inside he wasn’t. He still thought of it, he still dreamt of it and he still felt guilty. She would make sure to give him some more reasons for that.

“Don’t you wanna write anything down?”, he asked, she blinked, glancing back into his eyes, quickly loosening her balled fists.

“Sure. Right. Bit tired.”

Scorpius cocked his head, eying her, she smiled sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders. It was quite exhausting spending almost twenty-four hours a day with Scorpius, but she was following a purpose that would undoubtedly be worth it.

“That’s... I can write your essay if you want. You can lie down.”

How could she say no to that? His crush on Albus made everything so much easier. Being just friends was difficult, she didn’t know what if was like to have friends. Love however... love was different. Love was something that was moving everyone. Love was the most powerful and foolish thing one could feel. And Scorpius definitely was on the foolish side.

“You would? Thanks, you’re the best.”

She briefly touched his wrist, giving the most honest smile, Scorpius beamed, nodding.

“No problem.”

Delphi got up, letting her hand brush over his shoulder, before disappearing down the staircase to the boys dorm room. No one else was there thankfully, she couldn’t stand their roommates. They were even more annoying than Scorpius himself. She sat down on Albus’ bed, the only one without any Slytherin themed covers or pillows.

She twirled her wand around in her fingers, it belonged to Harry, it was his spare wand, he had lent it to her until they could go and buy a new one. She studied it carefully, not having done that before for some reason. It was quite beautiful, dark wood, small fine ornaments carved into the handle, it lay heavy in her hands. She wondered how often Harry had used it. What spells he had performed with it. Any really. But a Reverse Spell would hardly be of any use, she had used it too often already; it wouldn’t display the spells he used anymore. Ironic, it was, to think she would kill him with this...

She put it away, crawling back into the pillow, lying down on her back. The Slytherin rooms were quite cozy, she had to admit. She liked the stone walls, the ominous green light caused by the lake shining through the window. She’d even say this was her favorite place in Hogwarts if it wasn’t for her roommates. They were an annoying little bunch, pure blooded at least, otherwise she would have hexed them already.

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to relax. This was all quite exhausting, she couldn't wait until this facade was over. She was still figuring out a plan on how to set an end to Harry Potter. The Christmas holidays were coming soon, she’d go home to Albus and his family. Surely she would get her chance then. He’d never expect his own son to hurt him. She couldn’t wait to see his expression when she aimed his own wand at him, he would never dare to mistrust or even attack his own son. She would watch the life vanish from his eyes. If her father could see her then... He’d be so proud. Finally.

She smiled softly in her pillow, turning to the side. Not long from now on. When the holidays came she would take her chance and kill him. She would make sure she got him alone though, she wouldn’t be overpowered again. And then she would flee, get her own body back and unfortunately kill Albus in the process, then disappear to somewhere, maybe another country and seek for followers. If she even had to seek; they’d come to her. Once they knew who she was they’d be willing to do whatever she wanted. And then she would bring back the Darkness.

She let out a chuckle. And that would only be the start...

“What’s so funny?”

She snapped open her eyes, turning around to Scorpius entering the room, a stack of books in his hands a curious smile on his lips. She stared at him, quickly pulling herself together, sitting up.

“Just... thinking.”

“About?” Scorpius placed the books on his nightstand, plopping down on the bed next to her. _Killing your best friends father_ , she thought grimly, but smiled at him.

“Nothing important. Are you done?"

“Yeah. Done with yours too.”

He nodded to the books, before moving over to her, even closer than before. It took all of her mental strength to not back off. Albus wouldn’t do that. Albus would lean in so that their shoulders touched, give him a gentle smile, stare into Scorpius’ eyes, hoping.

“Thanks, Scorpius.”

“Sure.. I hope you don’t mind that I’ve written two pages.” He shrugged his shoulders softly, Delphi shook her head.

“No... You’re such a nerd.”

“I know. Sorry.”

“No, I like it.” Delphi cringed at her own words even though they were spoken through Albus’ voice. But Scorpius blushed, grinning at her.

“Thank you.” His grey eyes wandered over her body, she forced an even wider smile, innerly wanting to push him away a bit. Still, that wasn’t something Albus would do. So he moved a bit closer to him, hooking her arm through his.

Being in Albus’ body was something completely different. First of all, he was a boy, a teenage boy that was the worst thing of it all. The rest wasn’t so unbearable. She didn’t mind the clothes, the hair or the people looking and snarling comment into their direction, it would be worth it in the end. But this constant affection from Scorpius, it took all of her strength to not snap. He obviously adored Albus and Albus was supposed to like him back, so that was what she did.

“Like you too, Al.”

“I know.” She nudged Scorpius again, he nudged back.

Sometimes she wondered how Scorpius would feel, knowing his best friend was actually Voldemort’s daughter. He’d surely blame himself for not noticing anything earlier, not being able to prevent this tragedy from happening. He’d hate himself for not being able to stop her from killing Harry Potter. He’d blame himself for the death of his best friend and love.

She gave Scorpous another nudge, harder than intended, he wasn’t stopping. He shoved her back even harder and she couldn’t hold herself back from giving him a shove that almost pushed him off the bed.

Scorpius giggled, his eyes sparkling mischievously, he was still thinking this was all just a game. Well, it was, unfortunately. For now.

“Rude, Albus...”

“You started it.”

“Just you wait, huh.”

Delphi didn’t have time to wonder what exactly he meant by that, Scorpius was already halfway on top of her, tackling her onto the bedsheets, starting to tickle her mercilessly. She was so surprised by it, she didn’t manage to push him off. No one had ever tickled her ever before and she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t even know she was _ticklish.  
_

A suppressed chuckle escaped her lips and for the first time it was honest. This wasn’t fair, she didn’t want to laugh about something like this, it was just silly. But Scorpius barely left her a choice. He was surprisingly strong in keeping her under him, she couldn’t move a limb.

“Got you.”

“Stop”, she got out, trying to grab his wrists, he grinned at her.

“You deserve it.”

“No–!” He tickled her again and she couldn’t help but laugh. A laugh that obviously didn’t sound like hers, but that was honest, that wasn’t fake for once.

“Scorpius– stop!”

“Say please.”

She rolled her eyes, still giggling cause he didn’t stop. This was awful. Just wrong. She clenched her teeth, forcing out a “Please...”

Scorpius stopped, chuckling, remaining sitting on top of her. She glared up at him, he smirked. Forcing a grin back, she softly pushed him off, keeping a hold of his wrists.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

“Aww, poor Albus.”

She tried wiggling out of his grip, crawled back in the bed a little bit. Enough physical contact for today.

Scorpius pouted, she managed another smile, feeling weirdly confused and angry at the same time. Scorpius was a very affectionate guy, she knew that, but she wouldn’t have thought he had the power to make her laugh. Perhaps that was what made Albus like him so much.

It didn’t matter, in the end. It was all gonna be over soon.

“Sorry...”, Scorpius mumbled, carefully eying his face. She silently cursed, her reaction hadn’t been very Albus-like. Albus probably would have tickled him back, laughed with him, stayed closed to him. But she just didn’t want to. It was tiring. She couldn’t risk him noticing though. So she moved closer to him again, promptly wrapping his arms around his neck, pulling him to her chest.

“No need to apologize...”

Scorpius hesitantly put his arms around him as well, chuckling softly.

“Right. We’re hugging now. I love hugs. Your hugs. And... well.” He stopped, Delphi silently finished his sentence in her head. _You._

She rubbed his back, squeezing him tightly. She had to keep this up. As long as necessary.

“I love them too.”

She leaned back, smiling at him, Scorpius returned it a bit sheepish, his cheeks red and his eyes very briefly flickered down to her lips. Delphi returned his gaze, desperately hoping he wouldn’t try to take a step further and try to kiss her. But Scorpius didn’t have the guts.

He leaned back a bit further, clearing his throat.

“Well then... I suppose it’s time for dinner.”

“Right. Let’s go.”

She got up from the bed, actually being quite hungry. The food was another good thing about Hogwarts.

A while later they were sitting at the Slytherin table, Scorpius was babbling something about Potions and Slughorn, she wasn’t listening. Her mind was already with Harry Potter again. She was debating if she should spare his wife and other children. They were his closest supporters and family after all. They would want revenge. They would come after her. And still, maybe mourning his loss would even be worse than getting killed too. Maybe she’d even kill them first, that would add to Harry’s suffering. And about the Malfoy father... Would she rather have him or Scorpius to die? The boy wasn’t of any use, neither was his father. She could however imagine them trying to stop her as well. But who was she going to kill? Both? Or just his father? If not necessary she wouldn’t like the thought of killing the boy. Despite him being rather annoying and talkative, he had something that prevented her from ending his life. Perhaps the fact that it would be much more amusing to rip away what little family he had left than almost doing him a favor with reuniting him with his mother.

She glanced at Scorpius, he was still rambling about Quidditch, he was so easily to excite, his eyes were shining and he was wildly gesturing with his hands, almost knocking over his goblet of pumpkin juice. Albus found it adorable. Delphi thought it was deadly annoying.

“... maybe next year I’ll try out. We could do it together.”

“Quidditch?”

Quidditch was another thing she didn’t quite get. What was so interesting about flying on brooms and throwing balls through goals? People were going crazy about it. Couldn’t they have that much enthusiasm for the Dark Arts?

“Yeah? I know, we don’t like it but people change, Albus. And I think I can like it, you know? If we’d try together.”

She forced a nod. Sure. Only that Albus would never return to Hogwarts.

“Maybe. We’ll see.”

He beamed at her, apparently that was enough for him. Poor him. He’d never see his best mate again. Not alive.

“Hey, Potter!”, a voice behind them sounded, she suppressed a sigh, turning around.

A Gryffindor boy was standing in the corridor between the tables, behind him a small group of friends.

“How does it feel being back? Why didn’t you stay in the past, would have done us all a favor.”

She balled her fists, that was just below herself. Stupid git saying these things. She’d make sure he’d pay for that. Except that she couldn’t, Albus wouldn’t do that. Albus wasn’t technically good at dealing with these things. Bullying.

She felt Scorpius’ eyes on her, worriedly.

What would he do? She scoffed, turning back around. Ignoring it was the thing Albus would do. Of course it wouldn’t do anything but he was too scared to say anything. Deep inside he thought it was true. Well, he didn’t have to deal with that anymore.

“I’m talking to you, Potter.”

She kept staring straight forward, Scorpius shifted a bit closer. She wouldn’t get angry. This wasn’t about her.

“What, have you forgotten how to speak? Did Voldemort’s daughter hex your tongue off?”

That would have actually been a good idea, why didn’t she think of that earlier? She clenched her teeth, turning around.

“Careful or your tongue won’t be the only thing I’ll hex of.”

The boy raised his brows, lips spreading into a mocking grin.

“Oh? Scraped up some courage on your trip to the past?”

She got up from the bench, approaching him, not caring about Scorpius’ protesting hand that reached for her wrist to hold her back, getting out her wand.

“Be very careful, my friend. You think I won’t do it, huh? Wanna test it?”

The boys friends glanced at each other, grinning, obviously not believing her.

“Albus...”, Scorpius mumbled nervously behind her, she didn’t pay him any attention. If there was one thing she absolutely hated, it was someone underestimating her. Especially young stupid disgusting Gryffindor half bloods.

“Sure, go ahead”, he said, raising his chin, eyes glistening with mockery and arrogance. She glared back, raising her wand. If he wanted it this way...

_“Everte Statum.”_

The Gryffindor boy was thrown backwards and landed with a dull sound a few feet down the hall. His friends immediately rushed to his side, she lowered her wand again, scoffing softly. What an idiot.

“Albus!” Scorpius grabbed her arm, she turned to him, unamused. The blonde boy’s eyes were wide, darting from her back to the Gryffindor as if he couldn’t believe what she had just done.

“What the hell?” Scorpius pulled her closer, shaking his head vigorously.

“Casting a spell on another student? You could get months of detention for that... How... How did you even do that?”

Delphi swallowed. Right. Albus wouldn’t have known how to do something like that. He didn’t even know these kind of spells. She shrugged vaguely, averting her eyes.

“I read about it. Didn’t expect it to work though.”

“Yeah, but...”, Scorpius trailed off helplessly, tightly squeezing her arm.

“You’re gonna be in _so much_ trouble.”

“Well, I don’t care, Scorpius. You heard what he said. I’m done.”

Albus was bound to snap at some point, right? He had to be so sick of hearing them saying these things.

“We don’t care, Albus, remember? We don’t care what they say. We know it’s not–“

“Well, I changed my mind. I’m done with being walked all over.”

She wrestled out of his grip, turning back to the Gryffindor boy, scrambling up from the floor, reaching for his wand. She clenched her teeth. He deserved that. He deserved even more but that was all Albus was capable of.

“Albus–“

“No. You go ahead and let yourself be bullied but I won’t do that anymore.”

She turned back around, leaving him standing, approaching that boy, raising her chin.

“You thought I wouldn’t do it, huh? Thought I was too weak? A loser? You thought wrong.

She heavily bumped her shoulder against his, making her way towards the entrance of the hall. People were staring in shock, it was almost quiet. Halfway there she heard him muttering something like _“Just you wait, Potter”_ , and a noise that sounded suspiciously like someone getting out their wand.

She smirked, softly shaking her head. Let him try. He wouldn’t manage to hurt her.

_“Petrificus Totalus!”_

She blocked his silly curse with a flick of her wand without even turning around. Stupid boy...

Only when she entered the Slytherin common room she realized that this probably had been a mistake. Albus wasn’t like that, not at all. He was hesitant and quiet and kept it all to himself, he didn’t burst out like this, snap and hex a student. Despite not knowing _how_ , he didn’t have the courage.

She flopped down on Albus’ bed, balling her fists. She shouldn’t have done that. Scorpius had to be thinking she had gone crazy. Maybe he even was suspecting something. She needed to talk to him. She’d simply pretend she was angry and wait here, he’d come soon surely...

She leaned back into the pillows, closing her eyes. She just needed to charm him again. No, have _Albus_ charm him again. He wouldn’t suspect her if she’d behave normal again, if she’d act all Albus-like. She had to go full in to make him believe her again.

After waiting for about half an hour though Scorpius still hadn’t returned to her. What was he doing? Was he... going to tell someone? A teacher? The headmistress? No, he wouldn’t tell on her, on his best friend. He loved him too much.

The warmth in the Slytherin rooms, despite being under the lake, made her feel quite sleepy, she suppressed a yawn, rolling to the side. Perhaps she could sleep a bit. Escape into a dream where she wasn’t stuck at this horrible school anymore, where she would reach her goal and be with her father.

***

She woke up, immediately sitting up again, panicking and taking a look at the clock on her nightstand. It was night, their roommates were asleep and so was Scorpius on the bed next to hers. She let out a soft sigh, he went to bed. Without waking her. Perhaps he was mad at her. Perhaps that boy from Gryffindor had started bullying or even attacking Scorpius when she had been gone. She ran her hand through her – or Albus’ – dark hair, shifting to the edge of the bed. She should wake him. Make up something about having a nightmare and couldn’t sleep anymore. Make sure he believed she was just his weak, frightened best friend. And this time she needed to fully convince him. It had to be honest, it had to be real.

Delphi reached for her wand, casting a silent Cold Spell on herself, that made goosebumps crawl all over her arms and made her start shaking. She then produced a bit of water in the palm of her hand, rubbing her eyes with it. Crying and shaking, if that wasn’t enough she couldn’t help him. Alright.

Taking a deep preparing breath, she tiptoed over to Scorpius, softly shaking his shoulder.

“Scorpius...?”

He groaned softly, turning onto his back, blinking.

“Hmmm? Albus?”

“Yes... I’ve just... I had a nightmare...”

Scorpius frowned, slowly sitting up. She wrapped her arms around herself in a hopefully pitiful looking way.

“A nightmare? Wait, have you been... crying?”

He leaned closer and she averted her eyes, like Albus would do.

“I just...” She silently breathed out, wiping her cheeks. It had quite the effect on Scorpius, he grabbed her wrist, pulling her onto his bed.

“You have... Albus...” He sighed, putting his arm around her. She closed her eyes, reluctantly leaning against him. She really hoped it’d be worth _this_ in the end...

“There was... we were back in Godric’s Hollow and... there was Delphi and she... she killed my dad and then–...”

She took a deep breath for the dramatic effect, making up the words as she spoke. It wasn’t very difficult.

“She... she wanted to hurt you–“

“Shh, you don’t need to tell me...”

Scorpius was softly rubbing her back, resting his head against hers, sitting so close their legs touched. She nodded, rubbing her eyes.

“What... what do you do when you have dreams like this...?”

“I... Well, I try to tell myself that it’s over... That I don’t have to be afraid anymore. That you’re always gonna be there...”

She forced a smile and a surprised expression, he nodded, returning it softly.

“That we’re safe. Because we are.”

Oh, the irony. She had to suppress a smirk, instead nodded as well.

“I know... thanks... I needed to hear that. Thanks for... being there.”

Scorpius’ smile grew, he extended his hand, she regarded it for a moment.

“Friends, remember?”

She glanced up at him, then quickly took it.

“Friends.”

Scorpius frowned a little bit and she already feared to have done something wrong, when he smiled again.

“Okay. Uhm... then goodnight. Unless...”

He averted his eyes, hands grabbing each other, fumbling nervously, then he spoke really quickly.

“Unless... you want to stay here, there’senoughroomfortwo....”

She blinked, she hadn’t expected this. On the other hand, there were a lot of things not to expect from Scorpius Malfoy. But would Albus say yes to this? Would he be brave enough? She doubted it.

“Sorry?”

Scorpius was getting bright red, looking everywhere but at her, trying really hard to sound like he was joking.

“I said... unless you want to sleep in my bed with me. Haha. Why would you? It’s way too narrow. Besides, I kick in my sleep. And you don’t even want to. Just kidding”, he was babbling, she watched him impatiently. That didn’t sound inviting, nothing about him did.

Albus was thinking differently though. Albus would probably stutter out a yes and his heart would do a double take. He’d blush furiously, then settle down under the covers with his best friend as far away as possible and pretend that his heart wasn’t beating at the speed of lightning.

“Yes. I do. Actually. Why not?” She managed an embarrassed sounding chuckle. “Maybe it’ll help. Move over a bit.”

Scorpius stared at him, his eyes shining in the dark, he slowly crawled back in his bed, lifting the blanket.

“Right. Sure. Come in.”

Delphi slid under the cover with him, feeling highly uncomfortable. For the first time she was weirdly glad she wasn’t in her own body. She wasn’t herself. She had never shared the bed with someone. And she wasn’t now, _Albus_ was. It was just because she needed to.

“Is this okay?”, Scorpius asked, his voice slightly higher than usual. She nodded, turning to him. He was focusing him hesitantly, eyes scanning his face.

She nodded again, smiling softly, moving a bit closer. Albus would do that. He might not be very brave but he couldn’t help himself with Scorpius. He trusted him effortlessly.

“Good night then...”, she mumbled and Scorpius nodded, closing his eyes. As soon as he didn’t see her face anymore she stopped smiling.

“Good night, Albus...”

She surpressed a sigh, closing her eyes as well. She didn’t know if she could sleep like this.

After a few quiet minutes, Scorpius raised his voice again, quiet and serious this time.

“What you did earlier... hex this student... that wasn’t... _like_ you.”

Delphi opened her eyes, so he had noticed. Of course he did. He knew Albus in and out. Scorpius was looking at him, rather worried.

“What has gotten into you suddenly?”

She sighed, focusing Scorpius’ shirt instead of his face.

“I... just wanted them to stop. Before they say something about you too.”

“But they do that all the time. And you never attacked someone before.”

Delphi sighed softly again, moving a bit closer to him. Time to charm him again...

“I... I just don’t want to see you get hurt anymore."

She reached out her hand to touch his wrist. Scorpius didn’t pull back, of course he didn’t. She slowly intertwined their fingers, averting her eyes to his chest.

“After everything that happened. I can’t stand seeing you hurt again. They have to stop at some point. Maybe that’ll teach them a lesson.”

“You frightened me.” He sounded surprisingly honest. _Frightened_. She liked that. Albus wouldn’t. Albus would be mortified by that statement. His best friend being scared by him.

“What? Scorpius...” She slid closer again, tightly clasping his hand.

“I didn’t... I didn’t want to... I’m sorry.”

Scorpius leaned in, his head rested against his shoulders. She held her breath.

“I know... Just warn me the next time.”

“There won’t be a next time. Not if I scared you. That’s the last thing I wanted.”

Scorpius smiled softly, squeezing her hand. She squeezed it back.

“Don’t worry. I still like you, Al.”

“I’m glad...” She pulled herself together and put as much Albus as possible in her next move.

She reached out, softly trailing her fingers along his cheekbone, gently tracing his jawline, then pulling back her hand.

“S-sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

“Idon’tmind.” Scorpius blurted out, his cheeks red, even in the darkness. Delphi held back an eye roll. Love was such a weak thing. And Scorpius was absolutely lost in it.

“Touch me all you like.” He promptly blushed even deeper.

“No! I don’t... I mean, yeah...” He chuckled sheepishly, burying his face in the pillow. Delphi clenched her teeth, he was hopeless.

“It’s fine”, she got out, reaching out to put her hand on his shoulder. Scorpius glanced back up at her, smiling again.

“Okay. Good.”

“Let’s go back to sleep, shall we?” She took his hand again, nuzzling a bit closer to him. Too close for her taste. But not for Albus’.

“Yes...” Scorpius quickly closed his eyes and she did as well, hoping she’d fall asleep as fast as possible. 

***

The next day came and she woke up, thankfully alone in Scorpius’ bed. He seemed to be in the bathroom already. With a look at the clock she noticed that it was quite late already. It was Saturday though, they didn’t have to go to any of these ridiculous classes today. She got up, finally leaving his bed again, it was still warm where he had been lying. He couldn’t be gone for long...

She started dressing herself in Albus’ clothes, halfway done noticed something lying on Scorpius’ nightstand.

Frowning she stepped closer, it was a letter. To his father. When did he write that? She briefly glanced around but there was no one else in the room and no one coming down the stairs either. She snatched it, unfolding the parchment, eyes flying over the writing.

_Dear Dad,_

_how are you? I’m fine, mostly. I’m writing to tell you about something that is probably totally unfounded and ridiculous (and I hate myself for it a little bit) but you told me to write you if something feels off – so I am. It’s about Albus._

Delphi frowned. The ink was thick at this sentence, as if he had taken a long time to write it. She balled her fists, slightly crumbling the paper and continued to read.

_He’s been acting weird lately. Yesterday we were at dinner and someone from Gryffindor said something mean to him and he attacked him!! He used some kind of spell that made him fly backwards, we didn’t even have that in Defense Against the Dark Arts yet and he normally is terrible at offensive spells. It just didn’t seem like him at all, do you know what I mean?  
_

Damn it. She thought she had been convincing enough to make him believe she had just wanted to protect him. Apparently not, apparently Scorpius suspected something was wrong with his best friend. She didn’t like where this was going.

_But it’s not just that. Last night I heard him talking in his sleep. Which is not unusual, I do that all the time, but Albus normally doesn’t. The strange thing about it was that he was talking in a language I didn’t understand. It was kind of like a hissing, so I thought maybe it was Parseltongue? He can’t speak that, I know that, so maybe he had a nightmare in which he could? Maybe it weren’t even actual words but it was quite scary._

The paper crumbled even more in her hands. Stupid, she was so _stupid_... Talking in her sleep, she should have known better! Of course that was unusual, of course Albus would never do that... Maube she could really play it off as a nightmare. She had to, she couldn’t let her cover be busted. Not yet.

_And he’s been weirdly angry in the past weeks. I don’t know what it is but he keeps zooming out and gets this strange look in his eyes, I’ve never seen that before. But sometimes he glares at the students or even teachers as if he wishes them to catch a really bad case of Dragon Pox. I was hoping maybe you could tell me how I could help him, because he’s obviously not over everything that happened with Delphi and stuff. And I really want normal-Albus back. Let me know how you’re doing._

_Love, Scorpius_

Angry with herself she shoved the paper back on the table, clenching her teeth. It wasn’t over. She could still convince him, she was just a bit confused after everything that happened, just a bit scared. It was fine, no need to panic or take drastic action...

“Albus, you’re up!”

She whirled around to Scorpius, trying to keep a neutral expression, even though she felt her heart beating violently. Scorpius was smiling a bit cautiously. Because of last night or the letter?

“Yes. Good morning”, she forced out, even managing a smile. “Thanks for letting me sleep in your bed.”

He blushed, burying his hands in his pockets, averting his eyes.

“Sure... uhm–“

“Breakfast?”, she quickly interrupted, Scorpius glanced up again, relieved, looking a bit past her.

“Yup. You go ahead, I just need to take this letter to the owlery real quick.”

Her stomach dropped, he went past him, taking the paper with a soft smile, rolling it up. _Come on, pull yourself together._

“Alright. I’ll wait.”

“Yeah, leave some bacon for me”, he grinned, giving a small wave before disappearing up the staircase. Delphi stared after him. She hadn’t lost, she could still talk herself out of this. Somehow. She was good at lying, she was good at convincing, she knew that... Still, Scorpius was stubborn and he was wary and his father was even more.

What if Albus – the real Albus – already had called attention to himself, what if he spoke to Harry Potter? His father wouldn’t believe him but what if Draco Malfoy got that letter from his son and they would count two and two together? She felt like there was an ice cold hand closing around her heart and squeezing tightly. It would all be over. She’d be send to Azkaban for the rest of her life and Harry Potter would live happily ever after and _it shouldn’t be like this._  This was wrong, this world was wrong and she needed to make it right, she had to!

It wasn’t over. No, she knew just what to do. She would make it look like an accident. The stairs of the owlery were slippery, he simply had slipped and fallen down several floors. No one would suspect her, no one would _know_.

Delphi grabbed her wand, hurrying up the staircase, more determined than ever before. This had to be done. She had to stop Scorpius from sending that letter.

 


	5. Albus

Albus felt like he was slipping out of one nightmare into the next one. He didn’t know what day it was or how long he had been here already, it didn’t matter if it was day or night, it was always dark around him. Spending most of the time lying on his back and staring up at the ceiling or pretending to sleep he couldn’t say how long he could still do this. He tried holding onto that little bit of optimism inside of him, that little bit of light that was the thought of his parents getting him out of here or Scorpius figuring out the truth and getting help. They couldn’t take much longer, he always told himself. Maybe they’d even knew already, maybe they were just on the way to get him out of here... It couldn’t take long anymore.

He had given up on trying to convince the Aurors he wasn’t who he seemed to be. They didn’t believe him and they never would believe him. He didn’t know when this trial would be, but it was approaching steadily and he was scared. Hopeful, on one hand that maybe Hermione would be there, maybe even his dad and he could somehow prove he was saying the truth, but simultaneously so afraid of the outcome. He hadn’t forgotten what one of these guards said. It was only to decide if they would bring the Dementors back, just for him, for Delphi. And if there was one thing that could make this situation even worse it would be Dementors floating in front of his cell sucking out whatever happiness was left in him.

Which wasn’t much. In addition to this awful situation of being locked in Azkaban came that he was being plagued by horrible nightmares every night (or whenever he was sleeping). They consisted of Delphi, mostly, torturing his best friend, sometimes Craig was in them as well, sometimes his father and he always woke up, sweaty and disoriented, shaking with fear and debating if staying awake or sleeping was worse.

He wished for Scorpius to be at his side. He needed him, he needed his best friend. Desperately. Or else he felt like he couldn’t stand this much longer. So he tried thinking of him, just like Scorpius told him he did in that Voldemort world. He tried remembering his optimistic, slightly suggestive smile and the way he always started talking so fast he didn’t understand a single word whenever he was excited. How it would be to finally see him again, hug him again, because that was something they did now, wasn’t it? Was that something he did with Delphi too? Thinking it was his best friend he was hugging?

Best friends. He had thought about these two words the past time longer than necessary. It had fitted to them once and it still did but it felt like it was something missing there. He didn’t know what it was, not quite. He had a suspicion, a slight presumption what it was that made his stomach tingle whenever Scorpius smiled at him or their hands touched. He had no idea if Scorpius had noticed it as well, he desperately hoped so but what was most important was that he ever would get to tell him that. He wanted to see him again, safe and unharmed, his face, his smile, everything. Hug him again and tell him how much he meant to him. Tell him how much he meant to him. Tell him.

Albus turned to the side, opening his eyes, being greeted by the sight of the cold grey stone wall next to the thing he called his bed. He was freezing, it was ice cold in here, he only had a thin blanket, it didn’t do a good job in keeping him warm. His tired eyes wandered over to the wall opposite of him, he blinked. In one of his weak attempts to convince the guards he was telling the truth and after they had shut him up again, he had carved the words _Harry Potter_  into the stone wall, tried to. It hadn’t done anything. No one had come to get him out of here. Not his mother, not his father, not Scorpius.

But he had needed to do something. Anything. Before he lost his mind. It had distracted him from his hopelessness a little bit.

He gazed at the bars of his cell, the sun was high up, the sky was blue, it wasn’t snowing but it had to be freezing. But maybe it was only the aura of this building that made him feel so cold inside. He felt like the happiness had left him almost completely anyway, he didn’t need Dementors for that. Perhaps he could add something under that _Harry Potter._

He slowly sat up, hugging his knees. The bleeding had returned for the past three days, the pain in his stomach had lessened but everything had stopped yesterday. As sudden as it had come. And he was damn glad about it. It had been horribly disgusting, blood in his underwear, this pain coming in waves of needles piercing through his stomach and these strange mood changes. Thinking about it he wished that last thing back. That way there wouldn’t be hopelessness only.

It was only a matter of time. How fitting.  _Time_. Again. He wanted to laugh at that but didn’t feel capable of it. He didn’t fell like crying anymore either. Perhaps there were no tears left to cry.

There were steps approaching, hurried steps, but he didn’t look up. It was just another one of the guards walking past, ignoring him, not listening. Occasionally bringing food and water. A soup and a single mug of water had it been last night. It wasn’t much and he had the slight suspicion the water came directly from the ocean below but he appreciated it. It was something. And he had to accept it, he didn’t want to starve to death.

Albus dimly realized the steps didn’t went past his cell at all, he slowly raised his head, glancing up. Maybe they came to inform him about the trial. Or he had to move cells. Or they decided they didn’t want to keep up with him any longer and were leaving him to the Dementors. He wondered if it would hurt. Briefly, surely and then? Then it was over? Just like that? He wanted this to be over. But not like this...

There wasn’t a guard standing in front of his cell. Nor a Dementor. It was his father.

He blinked, actually rubbing his eyes to make sure it was real. He was almost sure he was only imagining. He squeezed them shut, opening them again. No, this wasn’t a dream.

“Dad?”

His own voice didn’t sound real to him anymore. It was quiet, weak, hoarse, despite not even being his voice in the first place. His father had his wand raised, aiming at him through the bars. His face was unreadable. Did he came to get him out of here?

Albus struggled to his feet, supporting himself on the wall, he hadn’t gotten up since yesterday, he was feeling exhausted and fairly dizzy.

“Albus...”, his father said and Albus faltered, staring at him with a lump in his throat. Did that mean... what he hoped it meant? He believed him? He swallowed, rubbing his eyes again, slowly approaching him.

“A-are you... gonna get me out of here?”

Why wasn’t he saying anything? Did something happen? No, no, that couldn’t be.

He swallowed hard, shaking his head slowly. What if she had hurt someone? Scorpius? Was he okay?

“Dad, is everything alright?”

He took a hesitant step closer to the bars, Harry glanced up for the first time, meeting his eyes, there was a hint of insecurity in them.

“I tried looking you up on the Marauder’s Map. You weren’t at Hogwarts with Scorpius, you... – my son isn’t at Hogwarts, instead there was the name Delphini Lestrange...”

He took a deep breath while Albus felt his heart beating ridiculously fast. So she was with Scorpius. He didn’t feel good knowing that for sure...

“I...I need to know if you’re telling the truth. If you’re my son.”

He nodded willingly, the spark of hope flaming in him, he suddenly didn’t feel so cold anymore.

“Yes, please, ask me anything.”

His father stepped a bit closer, eyeing him through the bars, his wand still aiming at his chest. Albus didn’t back off. He wouldn’t hurt him. He’d never hurt him not even when he was in Delphi’s body. He trusted him.

“What did she do to you? What do you think?”

Harry’s eyes were determined, but curious, Albus swallowed. This was his chance, his chance to tell him everything, to make him believe him.

“I... I think she– Delphi used some kind of curse to switch us, I don’t know, and I don’t remember...” He got out, closing his eyes briefly. It was all very blurry.

“I woke up in this cell. In her body. I... I tried convincing the guards that something’s wrong and... that they should let me talk to you, but they wouldn’t listen.”

He started shaking slightly at the memory, grabbing the bars. Harry lowered his wand, eyes piercing right through him.

“I... I still have to... make sure, you’re telling the truth.” He glanced over his shoulder down the hallway. Most of the other prisoners were still sleeping, they did that most of the time.

“Go on. Ask me anything you want.”

Albus looked back honestly, ready to answer his questions. He’d notice he was honest, he had to. He was his father.

Harry took a deep breath, lowering his eyes.

“Actually... It would be easier if you... would let me have a look.”

Albus frowned. What did he mean by that? Have a look? Into what, his mind?

He swallowed, shuddering again.

“Y-Yeah. If that proves it to you.”

His father nodded, reaching into his coat, pulling out a metal key. Albus stared at it, his head spinning. He had a key. Where did he get that from? But this was his way out of here, _he had a key,_ he would get out of here!

“There are Protection Spells that ward off spells from the in and outside, so I need to come in. Don’t... don’t try anything. You won’t get far.”

“I won’t”, he quickly shook his head, raising his hands defensively, taking a few steps back. Harry didn’t take his eyes off him, while he unlocked the door and performed a complicated looking wand movement at the lock. It swung open with a creaking sound, he stepped in and the air around him vibrated, Albus held his breath.

“Alright...”, Harry cast another brief glance over his shoulder, before approaching him, wand drawn.

“If you’re in there, Albus... I will find out. If not–“

“It’s me, dad. Do it.”

He didn’t know his dad was capable of doing Legilimency but there were probably a lot of things he didn’t know about him. And the other way around.

“It won’t hurt.”

Albus simply shook his head. He wouldn’t mind, he only wanted this to be over.

“Okay... it’s been a while since I’ve done this but technically it shouldn’t be that difficult... Don’t resist.”

Albus opened his mouth to say something but his father already mumbled “ _Legilimens_ ” and the next thing he felt was his head spinning like he was on a carousel.

Suddenly he was back in the Hogwarts Express together with Scorpius, shaking hands with him for the first time. Then three years later, he saw himself convincing him to get off the very same train, the two of them walking up to Upper Flagley. Then Delphi in the Forbidden Forest, kissing him on both cheeks, he didn’t know how he felt about his dad seeing that... “ _Good luck_ ”, she whispered and her voice echoed in his ears, quickly turning into his fathers own voice yelling at him: “ _Well, there are times I wish you weren’t my son!_ ” The memory of that, so sudden and real knocked his breath out of him, the image of his bedroom blurred around him, then they were cowering on the empty Quidditch pitch and Delphi was aiming her wand at Scorpius and Albus didn’t want to look. He heard the screams of his best friend and his own, Delphi laughing coldly, and suddenly there was Craig’s voice and a bright green flash of lightning. Everything blurred again and he was back in Godric’s Hollow with Scorpius, searching through the drawers of Bathilda Bagshot, then burning that message into the blanket of his father. 

Then they were in that church, he was crawling through that vent again, joining his father in the aisle, grabbing Scorpius’ hand, a sudden white light then it was dark. And slowly the cell in Azkaban was building around him again.

Albus’ legs gave in, he sunk down to his knees, shaking, blinking tiredly. His heart was racing in his chest, Scorpius’ screams still echoing in his ears. It was horrible, he wanted it to stop. He kept his eyes shut, the images still whirling around his head. He didn’t want to see that ever again... Craig dying and Scorpius being tortured, he wanted to get out of here, get these pictures out of his head, now...

He swallowed drily, slowly opening his eyes, gazing up at his father who stood there in front of him, whose wand dropped to the floor and who sank to his knees next to him and pulled him into his arms. Albus’ eyes fluttered shut, he tried taking a few deep breaths, a sob escaped his lips.

“Albus...”, his father mumbled, sounding close to tears as well, he softly rubbed his back. “I’m sorry... I’m so sorry. So terribly sorry. I should’ve believed you.”

Albus buried his face in his shoulder, feeling glad _so glad_  that he was here. That he believed him. He would get out of here, everything would be okay. They’d catch Delphi and she’d change him back and then it all would finally be over... He never had to see someone get hurt again.

“D-Dad... I...-“

“Albus, I’m sorry... It was just so hard to believe, y-you in this body, I didn’t want to see that I’ve imprisoned my own son, that I was so blind... I just wanted everything to be okay again, to be _over_...”

Harry grabbed his shoulders, leaning back, Albus swallowed, quickly wiping away some tears. He could understand him very well. It wasn’t his fault. None of this was. Delphi simply was an exceptionally good liar and she never gave up.

“Dad, it’s fine...–"

“No. No it’s not. You’ve been through so much already and I’ve put you here, here where–“

 His father wiped at his eyes, taking a deep shaky breath, shaking his head. Albus had never seen him so shaken before, it made him feel weirdly anxious. His father might not always know what to do but he always pretended to. And now he didn’t and that was scary...

“I’m sorry...” he repeated, voice breaking, the grip on his shoulders hardened. “I’ve put you through so much already and you’ve seen so many horrible things, everything I always wanted to protect you from...”

Albus shook his head, he didn’t need to say that, it didn’t matter now. They needed to focus on the important things. And that was protecting Scorpius, stopping Delphi and making sure she’d set an end to all this.

“I know, dad...”, he mopped at his eyes, slowly struggling to his feet, his father tightly put his arm around his shoulders, there was no sign of hesitation anymore.

“Did you... send someone to Hogwarts already?”

Harry sighed softly, shaking his head, picking up his wand again.

“I wanted to get you first.”

Albus tried swallowing down his upcoming panic at the thought of Delphi hurting Scorpius. She wouldn’t, would she? Wouldn’t that be too obvious? They’d notice something was wrong. They’d notice he wasn’t himself. Maybe Scorpius had already realized, maybe he had already gotten help...

“We need to go now. We need to find Scorpius, dad. I don’t want anything to happen to him...”

“You’re right. We need to be careful though. We know how dangerous she is.”

Albus nodded, he very well knew that. She was capable of horrible things, he had just seen them all over again. They had to hurry.

He held on to Harry’s sleeve, swaying a bit.

“What about mum? And Scorpius’ dad? James and Lily? Are they okay?”

“I think so. Your mum and I decided to get you out of here after we looked you up on the map... I’ll be sending her a message immediately.”

Albus nodded, just hoping he would hurry. What if Delphi already planned her attack on Scorpius? And what if Scorpius didn’t even suspect anything? What if she used the Confundus Charm on him or something? Or even worse the Imperius Curse? Would she do that?

His father raised his wand, closing his eyes very briefly and mumbling _“Expecto Patronum._ ”

A silvery blue stag erupted from the tip of his wand, circling them once before stopping in front of Harry, dark eyes blinking at them.

“Tell my wife to inform Professor McGonagall that Voldemort's daughter is in Hogwarts disguised as my son and to tell Draco that his son possibly is in grave danger.”

The stag lowered his head briefly as if it understood, before floating out of the door, out of the window. Albus swallowed at his words. _Grave danger_... He could only hope they wouldn’t be too late. He didn’t even want to imagine.

“Okay...”, Harry mumbled, still glancing after his Patronus. “We have to Apparate. We can’t use the Floopowder because what I’ve just done might have been a little bit illegal.”

Albus stared at him, mouth hanging open slightly. Illegal? His father wasn’t exactly good at following rules, he knew that, but he would have thought as Head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement he knew exactly what the consequences of breaking them would be.

It meant something to him. His father breaking rules for him.

“What...? The Patronus or the Legilimency part?”

Harry sighed, holding out his hand, he very slowly took it. He actually seemed to be serious.

“Both. And the getting you out of here part.” He briefly shook his head, as if to clear his mind of all the laws he just broke. Albus tried to somehow just go with it. He simply was glad to be out of here soon. No matter what it would take.

“But... you can’t apparate inside of Hogwarts...”, he just got out because he didn’t know what else to say. Scorpius always reminded him of that whenever he complained about having to climb up all the staircases to Divination.

“You can. Gonna break through some wards and a couple more of rules, but we have no other choice.”

He squeezed his hand. “Ready?”

Albus almost shook his head because that didn’t sound safe or promising at all, but he nodded. The sooner they’d be there and set an end to all this the better. As long as his father was powerful enough to break through that...

“Ready.”

A second later the cold walls of Azkaban blurred around them, Albus felt like a strong force was pulling him forwards and suddenly the air around him felt thick and warm, as if he was stuck inside of a syrupy liquid. That had to be one of these security spells, he thought. But he trusted his father.

Wait, didn’t Scorpius say something about _splinching_ once? What was that again? He realized about two seconds later what exactly that meant, when a sharp pain shot through his right shoulder, not unlike the one he had felt when he had broken his arm what seemed like an eternity ago... He almost let go of his father’s hand, but Harry’s grip was strong. Then with a loud bang, the pressure on his ears disappeared and he felt a solid ground under his naked feet.

He stumbled back and almost fell, but his father steadied him with a grip around his upper arm.

“Are you okay?”

He managed a nod before even thinking about it, as far as he had checked all his limbs were still attached. That was something. Swallowing he glanced around, spotting the grounds of Hogwarts around him, the bridge leading to the castle and the Forbidden Forest in the distance. His stomach sunk a bit. How were they supposed to find Scorpius and Delphi in the whole school? Search everything? He didn’t like the thought of wandering around school looking like _this_... He didn’t even want to imagine the confusion and possibly panic. Though his father already drew a lot of attention to him anyway.

“Dad... Did you... bring this map?”

His shoulder was burning slightly, he slowly reached up to touch it, immediately flinching back. Well, that didn’t matter now...

His father shook his head, glancing around, looking concentrated as if he could sense their presence merely by doing that. Well, maybe he could. Albus watched him for a few seconds, chewing on his lip. Where could they be...? Where would Scorpius be at a time like this?

He suddenly remembered something, spinning around to his father.

“What day is it?”

“What...? It’s Friday.” Harry sounded confused but Albus smiled triumphantly, something that felt weirdly difficult as if his muscles had forgotten how to do it.

“Scorpius always sends a letter to his father every Friday morning. Perhaps we’ll catch him at the Owlery. I’m sure she went with him. Come on!”

He hurried down the path to the Owlery, his father quickly followed after, he heard him mumble a quiet “Brilliant...”

He chose to ignore the pain in his shoulder, Scorpius was what was most important now. Keeping him safe. Stopping Delphi from hurting him. They would make it. They wouldn’t fail and they would cast this counter spell and change bodies back and he didn’t have to care about his injury anymore.

It had started snowing lightly, the sun was shining bright and the sky was clear of all clouds. It was a beautifully cold day, but Albus couldn’t appreciate any of that. The worry, the fear, it was overwhelming. If something happened to Scorpius, if she dared to hurt his friend, his only friend...

It couldn’t end like this. There was still something Albus had to tell him. So much he needed him to know.

They approached the Owlery, Harry held him back by his arm, gesturing him to stay quiet. Albus’ heart was beating uncontrollably in his chest, he was beyond scared. They couldn’t be too late. Standing in front of the door, they listened for a moment. Suddenly there came Scorpius’ voice from inside.

“... really didn’t need to come along, Albus. You never do that. I thought you were saving me a seat at breakfast.”

“Well...”, came Albus’ own voice back, Albus shuddered slightly. “After everything that happened I don’t like being separated from you for long.”

Albus reached for the door handle but his father grasped his wrist, shaking his head.

_Careful,_  he mouthed. _We wait till the others arrive._

Albus shook his head, that would take too long... who knows what she would do until then. But Harry probably couldn’t face her alone. He had done that before and he knew better. Still, he didn’t feel great about Scorpius and Delphi alone on the other side of this door...

“You know, after what my dad did. Keeping us apart. I hated it.”

“Me too... But we’re back together now, right? It’s fine now.”

“Is it, Scorpius? Is it really?”

The tone in his voice changed, Albus grabbed his father’s sleeve.

“Please, let’s go...”, he whispered, focusing the door anxiously. Harry frowned but shook his head again.

“It’s too dangerous alone–"

“Scorpius is alone in there. Please, dad, she’s going to hurt him...”

His father must have noticed the fear in his voice because he paused for a moment and then nodded.

“You’re right. But Albus...” He lightly placed his hand on his uninjured shoulder. “ I need you to stay back, you don’t have a wand and I don’t want you to get hurt as well. Promise me to stay behind me.”

Albus nodded immediately. Harry slowly pushed down the door handle, opening the door, stepping in. He felt his heart beating anxiously, his throat felt tight. The voices came from the first floor, they still needed to get up there. Delphi didn’t seem to have heard them, she was still talking to Scorpius.

“Didn’t you notice?” She let out a soft chuckle that made a cold shiver run down Albus’ spine. He had never heard his own voice sound like that before. Yet alone speaking to Scorpius like that.

“Oh Scorpius... And you call yourself Albus’ best friend?”

“W-what?”, Scorpius sounded confused, there were steps, Albus lifted his head at the ceiling, Harry slowly raised his wand.

“Love is a very powerful thing, you know, Scorpius? But do you know what else it does? It blinds you. It makes you blind for everything that is wrong.”

She laughed again, taking another step, it suddenly seemed very silent in here. Albus held his breath.

“What are you saying...?”

“Your love for Albus didn’t even make you see that it’s not even your best friend you’ve shared your bed with last night. That’s standing in front of you right now. It weakens you, Scorpius, because you do not want to see the bad in him, see that something is wrong–“

“I noticed something is wrong! I’m not– _blinded_! You’re behaving weird, you talk weird things in your sleep and y-you hexed that student! That’s not like you! I want normal-Albus back!”

She laughed again, this time colder and louder than before, Albus drew in a sharp breath, nudging his father, gesturing to the stairs. They had to stop this.

“Did– did Delphi do something to you? Did she hex you? Please, I want the normal you back, show me how I can help you...!”

“Help me?”, she chuckled, Albus could see his best friend through a crack in the ceiling, his back was turned to the edge of the platform.

“You could help me by taking another step back and ending your miserable life before I’ll be doing that.”

Albus felt his dad’s grip on his prisoners dress to keep him from making a move, softly shaking his head. His head was spinning, he almost expected to see that horrible green light again any moment now or hear the sound of his best friend’s screams.

“What are you saying? What’s wrong with you?”

“You still don’t see it? I thought you knew him. I thought you’d realize that these eyes are not the eyes of your beloved Albus...”

Scorpius took another tiny step back and Albus held his breath. _Stop_ , he silently pleaded. _Don’t go further_... A fall from this height probably wasn’t as dangerous as it would be from the second or third floor still he didn’t want Scorpius to get hurt...

“W-who are you? What did you do to him?”

“Who am I? Really Scorpius, I thought you had some brain in that blonde little head of yours! Do you need a little reminder?”

“That’s enough,” Albus mumbled, struggling out of his father’s grip, completely forgetting about his promise to stay behind.

“Albus...!”, his father hissed, grabbing his arm, pulling him back just as Delphi’s (like Albus sounding) voice screeched from above: “ _Crucio!”_

He felt like his heart set out, like he had fallen back into his nightmares, back into this horrible memory where they were on the Quidditch pitch. Only this time it was worse. His screams were worse, the Dark Magic pulsating through the air was worse, everything was worse. Everything was repeating itself.

“Dad...” he heard himself say in Delphi’s voice, sounding strangely distant, he felt like he was going to faint out of pure fear. “Please. Make it stop.”

His father cast one look at him. Then he aimed his wand to the ceiling, made a single wave and said:

_“Bombarda!”_

Albus probably would have wondered why the hell he just did that, if he wouldn’t be this deadly scared. The first floor burst up into an explosion, stones raining down on them, Harry roughly pulled him to his side, pointing his wand upwards and yelling “ _Protego!”_

The air pulsated, there was a slight blueish shimmer around them, the stones that would have hit them turning into dust.

Albus closed his eyes when he heard both Delphi and Scorpius scream, he didn’t dare to look. He was pressed tightly to his father’s side, heard him yell: “ _Arresto Momentum_!” to stop their fall. When he finally opened his eyes and turned around, he was facing a very scared looking Scorpius that was clutching his arm and – himself.

Before he could take another look at him, his father shoved him behind him again with a determination that didn’t allow any resistance.

“It’s over, Delphi. Give up, you have no chance to win this fight!”

Albus noticed Scorpius’ eyes flickering back and forth between him and Delphi, he slowly shook his head. He wanted to go to him, hug him and tell him everything was going to be okay. But he made a promise to his dad.

Delphi laughed, getting up to her feet, dusting off Albus’ robes.

“Harry Potter. So we meet again. You don’t even know how close I was to killing you when you told me how much you loved me and how sorry you were that I had to go through all of this. I would have _loved_ to see the look on your face!”

Harry’s grip on his wand tightened, he took a step forward, steadily aiming at her.

“I was talking to my son and not to you. How dare you? Using this kind of dark magic to trick me and my family? What do you get out of this?”

“Freedom? Revenge! Do you think I would be going into that dirty prison voluntarily? No, I wanted to play a little game with you, Harry Potter, before I kill you! Watch you suffer, watch your family suffer!”

“Why?” His father sounded exceptionally angry, taking another step forward. Scorpius was still gaping at them, eyes widened in unmistakable panic. Albus stayed behind his father, slowly reaching his hand out for his friend.

“Scorpius...”, he whispered and Scorpius flinched slightly.

“It’s me. Albus. Please...”

“Albus...?”, he could see him mouthing, eyes flickering to Delphi. He had to be so confused, maybe even blaming himself for not noticing earlier. It was fine, it was going to be fine, he wouldn’t be angry at him. He’d just be glad it was all over...

Delphi’s cold voice however pulled him back into the hard reality.

“Because you ruined every chance of me ever meeting my father, I had! You deserve to die, Harry Potter and so does your failure of a son! Albus!”

He flinched as she addressed him, peeking over Harry’s shoulder. The image of himself glared back at him, eyes glistening with hate.

“How do you like it in my body?”

It was absolutely _dreadful_ , he wanted to scream back but didn’t get out a single word. He was too frightened, too full of fear to make any move. Scorpius however took a step towards Delphi. Very bravely, Albus found.

“You _changed_ with Albus? It was you the whole time?”

She turned her head to him, smiling bittersweetly.

“Yes. It was me you cuddled with last night, Scorpius. And me you hugged at least twice a day. It was terribly annoying but it was the part I had to play. Lovesick Albus who wants nothing more than his best friend to notice–“

“Enough”, Harry cut her off impatiently and Albus was very glad about it, despite this horrible feeling of fear, he felt his cheeks heat up by her words. There was definitely some truth to it and he was horrified she knew about that. What did she do with Scorpius while being him? And what did Scorpius do with her?

He met his best friends eyes, he was hesitantly reaching into his pocket to pull out his wand, Albus slowly shook his head. This was too dangerous. They couldn’t attack her alone. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill again, she had just said that...

“You change your bodies back. Now.“

Delphi let out a cackle, shaking her head, a second later her wand was aimed at Harry. Albus blinked, he didn’t even see her reaching for it...

“No, why would I? It’ll be way more fun fighting against you like this! _Incendio_!”

“ _Protego_!” Harry shouted again, shielding himself and Albus from a wave of fire coming out of her wand. The heat reached them nonetheless and he tightly shut his eyes.

When he opened them again, he found Scorpius at his side, his father trying to push them both behind him. His friend grabbed his arm, eyeing him wide-eyed.

“A-Albus?”

“Yes! I’m sorry, Scorpius, everything will be alright, I promise...”

“Albus, you– her–!”

_“Crucio!”_

Albus seized his friends arm, pulling him down when a red bolt out of Delphi’s wand went past them, hitting the stone wall behind them.

“ _Expelliarmus_!” Harry yelled back, Albus clung to his friends arm, afraid to watch. Their spells clashed in the middle, the whole room was illuminated in bright white light.

“Where are you friends now, huh? You can’t rely on your loser of a son to help you!”

“ _Flipendo_!”

Delphi blocked it off, laughing madly. Albus felt Scorpius grasping for his hand, finding his wrist and tightly holding on.

“That’s all?” She hurled a yellow bolt at him, for a moment the air pulsated and Albus could feel the hairs on his arms standing up. The feeling immediately disappeared and his father caught himself on one of the still remaining stairs, flinching slightly as if some sort of shock went through him.

“Oh, I forgot. I still look like your beloved son. _Stupefy_!”

Harry raised his wand and the spell rebounded back to her, Delphi merely stepped out of the way, apparently not the slightest bit intimidated. Albus felt his heart racing in his chest, his shoulder hurt like hell and Scorpius’ nails were piercing in his skin, everything inside of him was screaming to get out of here, to _run_ , to get help, but he couldn’t leave his dad.

His eyes darted back and forth between them, the loud bangs hurting his ears, Scorpius’ breath panicked and fast beside him. He couldn’t move, even though he knew just one misaimed (or purposefully) spell and it would all be over. Slowly he pushed Scorpius a little bit behind him. Where were his mother and Draco, Professor McGonagall? Someone must have heard them...

“Give up, it’s no use!”, his father yelled her, tightly gripping his wand with both hands, grimacing in effort. “They’re already on the way, there’s no way you can get out of here!”

“Oh, I’ve no intention to do that.”

Then she suddenly aimed her wand at Scorpius and Albus’ heart stopped.

_“Expelliarmus.”  
_

Way too late Scorpius reached out to hold onto his wand, it flew through the air directly into her outstretched finger.

“Thank you.”

Albus watched anxiously how she aimed at his father again, now with both wands, grinning wickedly.

“Go ahead. Kill me! I’ve got two wands and I’m not even using them. What are you waiting for?”

His father stared back at her, lips tightly pressed together, not saying anything. Albus swallowed. This was his chance, this was the moment to end all this, but...

“Change my son back!” he forced out, saying exactly what Albus was thinking. Delphi’s grin got wider, her eyes, _Albus_ ’ eyes wandering over to him.

“But I’m not finished yet. Come on, Harry, you didn’t even notice it yourself, did you? Didn’t you think something was wrong? Didn’t your scar hurt?”

She gestured mockingly at his face, taking a step forward. Harry glared back with so much anger in his eyes, Albus felt weirdly reminded of that day in his bedroom where they had fought, as if he was watching himself. But this wasn’t him, this was Voldemort’s daughter and she could kill him any moment now.

“I noticed!”, he finally hissed back, she shook her head with an amused smile.

“After what, three weeks? That’s not exactly what I would call a good father then.”

“Well, you know all about that, don’t you?”, he snarled back, they started circling each other like animals, ready to attack at any second. Albus didn’t even dare to breathe.

“Thanks to you! At least I would do anything for my father! I’d turn back time! But you... you tell your son you don’t want him, I doubt you even love him! Thinking of that, I shouldn’t even be surprised you didn’t realize it wasn’t him.”

“I’d do anything for my son, you have no idea!"

Delphi smiled doubtfully and he felt Scorpius tugging at his sleeve.

“She’s provoking him...”

Albus nodded weakly, couldn’t take his eyes off his dad and Delphi, still in his body.

“I don’t believe you, Harry. I have one question for you.” She smiled softly, glancing over at them, directly into Albus’ eyes. He felt an ice cold shiver run down his spine, grasping Scorpius hand tighter. Delphi moved her left arm a bit, Scorpius’ wand now aiming directly at him, he held his breath.

“Would you still love him if he’d be stuck in my body forever?”

“He won’t!”, he immediately interrupted, Albus flinched. “You’ll cast the counter spell!” Harry stepped in front of him, bravely facing her wand again.

“What if there is none, Harry? What if I was so desperate to not go to Azkaban that I had no other choice? Ever thought about that?”

Albus felt a little bit of panic spreading in him. She had to be lying. There had to be a reverse for this. He swayed a bit on his feet, Scorpius steadied him.

“Why should I believe you?”

Harry raised his wand again, casting Albus a brief glance. He swallowed. That wasn’t the truth, it couldn’t be.

“You don’t have to. But that’s what it is. There is a counter spell. But once cast I can’t say for sure if he’d be strong enough to survive that. Pity.”

“Albus...” Scorpius mumbled, Albus turned his head to him, his head spinning. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want to stay in this body, he wanted everything to go back as it was before...

“You’re lying.” Harry got out through gritted teeth, tightly gripping his wand and Albus suddenly got the feeling he was about to use it again.

Delphi laughed hysterically, but didn’t take her eyes of him, her wands aiming at him.

“I suppose you have to find out.”

“I won’t hurt my son.”

“But it’s not him anymore, Harry. So, do your worst”, she raised her chin, spreading her arms as if to offer a bigger target for him.

Harry shook his head, taking a tiny step towards her. Albus was glad for Scorpius’ arm around his waist, he didn’t think he could stand any longer. This was all too exhausting. The pain in his shoulder was getting worse and he slowly reached for it, feeling blood on his fingers.

“You’re bleeding...” Scorpius whispered, noticing as well, his voice was dripping with worry. He wanted to assure him he was alright, but was cut off by Delphi’s and Harry’s voices yelling at the same time.

_“Petrificus Totalus!”_

_“Confringo!”_

Scorpius pulled him down as the wall behind them burst into pieces, Albus flinched at the pain in his shoulder that slowly was becoming numb, taking his whole arm with it, he could barely move his fingers.

“That’s better! But still not quite there. _Deprimo_!”

Another explosion sounded and Albus desperately hoped someone would hear and come to help them. He doubted this would end well.

“ _Stupefy_!”, his father countered, Delphi effortlessly ducked, causing the stone behind her to burst into a thousand pieces.

“We’re not getting anywhere with this, Harry! _Avada_ – oh, wait.”

She grinned and Albus felt like he was going to faint. His heart was beating so fast he feared it would jump out of his chest, his shoulder was hurting, he leaned against Scorpius, not able to do anything anymore. It felt like another nightmare. She had almost used the Killing Curse again, he had already prepared himself to hear that strange rushing sound again, see that green flash of lightning.

“Albus. I almost forgot about you. I’ve missed your screams a little bit. _Crucio_!”

Albus flinched and shut his eyes, but the curse didn’t hit himself. Scorpius held him close, he felt his heavy breath on his skin.

“Leave my son, you _monster_!" He had never heard his father sounding this angry and _hateful_ before, he was almost growling with anger.

“Or what? What are you gonna do? There is no way back, Harry Potter!”

Albus could basically see how something in his father snapped and whatever was holding him back disappeared, he aimed his wand directly at Delphi’s chest, yelling at the top of his lungs:

“ _Sectumsempra_!”

The strange thing about it was, that Delphi yelled something at the same time and the next thing Albus felt was a strange force pulling everything inside of him together, his breath was sucked from his lungs and he felt like he was being abruptly pulled forward. It went black around him, then white and weirdly warm, the pain in his shoulder vanished and for a moment he thought one of her Killing Curses had hit him and if this was dying, it wasn’t all that bad. But the next thing he felt was a terrible, overwhelming pain in his chest that was worse than any Cruciatus Curse could ever be. 


	6. Scorpius

Scorpius didn’t understand neither Harry’s nor Delphi’s spell, but a second later the room was enlightened in a bright blinding white light, burning in his eyes. Albus’ unfamiliar feeling hand slipped out of his grip, Scorpius covered his eyes with his arm. The air pulsated thickly with magic, he was being pressed down, as if a heavy weight was lowered on him and he ungently fell to his knees. Beside him Delphi’s voice gasped softly, he tried reaching out for her, _for Albus_ , found his wrist.

Slowly the light faded, the pressure on his ears disappeared and he slowly blinked and opened his eyes.

For a moment he thought nothing had happened, which seemed highly unlikely with Harry Potter and Voldemort’s daughter together in one room. Harry was still aiming at Delphi in Albus’ body, although he was on his knees as well, his expression determined but slightly tense as well. Scorpius started to wonder what his spell had done and if it even had done anything, when his eyes followed the length of Harry’s wand to Delphi cowering beside him, staring down at herself or rather at Albus.

Scorpius swallowed at the sight. There was blood soaking through his shirt, first in a weird criss cross motion then slowly coloring the fabric bright red all over. She slowly lifted her hand to touch it, letting out a silent shocked gasp.

Scorpius didn’t like seeing his best friend like this at all, even if it wasn’t him inside there, so he quickly turned around to the real Albus beside him, trapped in Delphi’s body.

“A-Are you okay?”

Albus’ eyes darted through the room, he didn’t pay any attention to him, focused on Delphi and hers and Scorpius’ wand still lying next to her.

“Albus?”, he carefully asked, casting Delphi another glance, she was panting heavily, clutching at her chest, then looked up at Harry almost as if she expected him to help her. He averted his eyes, presumably not liking the sight of his sons physical appearance like this either.

Scorpius swallowed, grasping for Albus’ hand next to him. She deserved it though; she deserved this defeat and pain and that looked really painful. Even if the sight of Albus so full of blood made him feel a bit sick.

“Dad...”, she then whispered, reached out for his wrist and Scorpius frowned. Why was she acting like this? Was she still trying to keep up this game? They had already seen through it, there was no point...

He turned his head to Albus – only to see a vicious smirk tugging at his lips. His blood seemed to freeze in his veins, his heart felt like it stopped beating.

No, that couldn’t be... That wasn’t possible. She couldn’t...

He let go of Delphi’s hand, backing off, staring at her with wide eyes.

“You! You changed back! You switched with Albus again!”

Delphi suddenly threw back her head and let out a cold bloodcurling laugh, just as Albus collapsed into his fathers arms, whimpering in agony.

“Albus... oh God, Albus...”, he could hear his father breathe out, he froze in place. She being in her body again, that meant– Albus being back in his, Albus bleeding, Albus being in terrible pain...

“No.”

“Oh yes.” Delphi all of a sudden launched herself forward, past him and Harry, grasping for her wand. Scorpius, too frozen to react, just stared at her, half of his mind already preparing for his end. But as soon as Delphi fully outstretched her arm, she winced in pain and clutched her shoulder and somehow that shook him awake from his trance. He pushed her aside grabbed both wands and hid them behind his back, out of her reach. His heart was beating anxiously in his, sheer panic overcoming him when she suddenly crawled towards him, letting out a low angry growl.

“Do you wanna stop me? Really, Scorpius, _you_?”

He backed off until the wall stopped him, she still kept going, eyes glistening with a hatred he had never seen before. He suddenly was certain she was going to kill him even without a wand.

A second later her hand was around his throat, bumping his head against the wall, tightly squeezing, her nails painfully piercing into his skin. The wands dropped out of his hands, he closed them around her wrists, trying to pull them off. He gasped for air, but she was stronger, her dark flashing eyes were narrowed, she was determinately biting down on her lip. She’d do this, she would kill him, he knew it...

“ _Brachiabindo_!”, sounded Harry’s voice from nowhere, the grip around his throat disappeared, he drew in an aching breath, massaging his neck. Delphi tumbled back, bound at hands and feet, growling with anger.

“You–! You think you’re gonna beat me?”

Scorpius shook his head to shake off the dizziness that had resulted from the lack of air in his lungs, gasping for air now, eyes flickering from her to Harry. He was halfway holding Albus in his arms, his sons head resting against his chest, eyes half closed, blood dripping from a deep cut in his cheek and it probably didn’t look much better under his shirt. Scorpius’ suddenly felt like his breath had been knocked out of him once more. That looked bad, so bad...

Harry’s other hand was still aiming his wand at Delphi, shaking remarkably. 

He didn’t cast another spell, apparently not trusting himself to hit her again.

“Are you okay?”, he then asked and Scorpius needed a moment to realize he was adressing him. He quickly nodded, scraping up the wands again, scrambling over to him. He needed to know if Albus was okay. Well, not okay, but... alive.

There was so much blood, he hadn’t noticed before. A puddle was building beneath him, a puddle of blood, he was exceptionally pale, visibly trying really hard to keep his eyes open, his face was full of pain. Harry was holding onto him, now trembling violently, one hand helplessly stroking his sons cheek, his wand uselessly in the other. He looked on the verge of panicking.

“Albus... stay with me, d’you hear? You need to stay with me...”

With horror Scorpius noticed that Albus white shirt wasn’t even white anymore, it was dying itself more red with every passing second. He nodded weakly, taking a deep shuddering breath.

“I am...”, he whispered barely audible, “I am... dad...”

Delphi scoffed and despite being bound by the limbs, looking quite triumphant. This was all she wanted, hurting Harry’s family and she succeeded.

“Poor Albus. Bleeding to death in daddy’s arms... What a tragic shadow that will cast on your family, Harry”, she hissed with a mocking grin.

“And it was you who cast the spell. Imagine if that gets out...” She clearly was trying to provoke him again, maybe she even wanted him to attack her again. Scorpius swallowed, watching Harry, he didn’t pay any attention to Delphi. He was staring at his son in horror, wiping the blood of his face as if that would do anything.

“Albus... Albus...”

“Harry...” Scorpius mumbled, he didn’t know where he took the strength to say these words from. “He’s loosing too much blood, we need to cast a healing spell, anything to close his wounds.”

He didn’t know any healing spells himself. Well, he knew _some_ but he couldn’t _do_ them. He wasn’t able to. He looked down at Albus, eying him, sick with worry, scared that something would happen to him that was irreversible. He slid closer to him, carefully taking Albus’ hand that was convulsively holding onto his father’s jacket. It felt frighteningly cold and clammy with blood.

Harry nodded slowly, pressing his wand to Albus’ chest, his other arm adjusting his grip on him, he was shaking so much, Scorpius had never seen Harry Potter so desperate.

“You’re right...”, he said, eyes darting to Delphi, then back to Albus, he carefully pushed a strand of sweaty hair from his forehead.

“Y-You’ll be alright, Albus...”

“Dad...”, he mumbled, his voice nothing but a faint whisper that made Scorpius’ throat feel tight. He had to be alright. Scorpius couldn’t have it any other way. It just couldn’t be, that wasn’t an option, _loosing_ Albus wasn’t an option.

“You’ll stay with me... won’t you...?”, he whispered, eyes anxiously focusing his father. Harry wildly nodded, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Of course... I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, Albus...”

Scorpius didn’t like the way that sounded, the way he said that. As if it was already lost. As if he was lost.

“And mum...? Where’s... my mum? You said she’s coming, didn’t you...?”

“Yes, she’s coming, she’s on her way, don’t worry... Hold on.”

Hold on? Until what? On what? _Life_? 

Scorpius for the first time didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t find the words. He didn’t know what to do if he should... leave him. He stared down at his best friend, tears dwelling in his eyes. What if...? What if it was already too late, what if that was why Harry wasn’t doing anything? If there was nothing they could do anymore...

“Scorpius...” Albus mumbled, eyes wandering over to him, Scorpius squeezed his hand worriedly.

“Yes... Don’t worry, Albus, everything will be alright...”

He didn’t know if this was the truth. He was too scared to admit that there might be some truth to him not being alright ever again.

“S-Scorpius, there’s something... I need to tell you...”

Scorpius shook his head, his eyes burning with tears.

“Albus, don’t... you shouldn’t talk...”

He needed him to save his strength until someone came to help. Whoever there would be who could help, if Harry Potter himself couldn’t.

“But... I have to–“

“Later, Albus, okay? You can tell me everything when you’re well again, yeah?”

“B-but...”

“Shh...”, Scorpius squeezed his fingers again, gently stroking them, swallowing down his tears. He had to stay strong for him. “You’ll be okay...”

“Scorpius...don’t...–”, Harry mumbled, sounding so awfully helpless and desperate, Scorpius felt a cold shiver running down his spine.

No, this wasn’t over, Albus was going to be fine. There had to be a way to help him! He regarded his own and Delphi’s wands in his hand, there had to be something... A spell, anything to stop this bleeding...

“Harry, isn’t there anything w-we can do...?”

Harry glanced up at him, a silent tear rolling down his cheek, he gripped his wand a bit tighter, but it didn’t do anything to keep his hands from shaking. He took a deep breath and a few seconds later a silvery substance was dripping out of his wand, settling onto Albus’ chest. Scorpius almost breathed out in relief, then it promptly stopped again.

“What...?” Harry waved his wand again, trembling so much, Scorpius wondered how he was even able to still hold it.

Delphi giggled. “What’s this? You can’t even do a simple healing spell?”

“I can... I know I can...”, he whispered, drawing in a terribly shaking breath, grabbing his wand with both hands. Scorpius scooted closer to him, wrapping his arm around Albus before he could sink to the ground. His head sank to his chest, he winced in pain, Scorpius adjusted his grip around him, carefully, scared to hurt him even more.

“Are you that weak, Harry Potter? Or is it the fear of loosing your son that’s stopping you? Knowing that it’s... all your fault?”

“I’m not... loosing him...”, he choked out, tightly holding onto his wand. Albus shivered slightly in his arms, drawing in a halting breath, shutting his eyes as another expression of pain went over his face. Scorpius swallowed, gently caressing his cheek.

Delphi chuckled again. “He’s dying, Harry Potter! Your own son killed by your curse!”

Albus opened his mouth to say something but not a sound came out. Scorpius leaned closer to his face, closer to his eyes, his beautiful eyes, now shadowed with agony, closer to the metallic smell of blood that made him feel so sick again.

“You’re not dying...”, he whispered and now his voice was trembling as well, he gently stroked through his hair, tears dripping down his cheeks. “Okay, Albus...? You’re gonna live. You’re gonna be okay. I promise...”

Albus nodded weakly, staring up in his eyes.

“Scorpius... I need to say it... now, or–“

“I know...”, he whispered back, wiping his cheeks. “I need to tell you something too... And as I said... later, okay...?”

Albus didn’t nod again. As he closed his eyes, a tear rolled down his pale cheek, he let out a quiet shaking breath.

Scorpius pulled him closer, feeling his blood soaked clothes sticking to him, the cold wetness of the blood that just seemed to _keep coming_ , the slow erratic beating of Albus’ heart in his chest and the difficulty he had with breathing, sending violent, hitched shivers through his whole body. The air suddenly felt thick around him, warm, the smell of blood, Albus’ blood, getting stronger, his heart was pounding heavily in his ears as slowly realization settled over him. That this could all be over soon. That maybe there was no _later_ for them.

Just the thought hit him with a force that knocked the breath out of him, worse than before. The thought of loosing Albus, loosing his only– his best friend. To death. He’d be gone. Just as that. Just as his mother.

He tried to take a breath, tried to focus, but it didn’t work. The smell, the blood, it was suffocating him. His vision blurred, his whole head felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice cold water over it, bile rose in his throat as his chest grew tighter and tighter and the sounds around him went numb. He believed to hear Harry’s voice from very far away, tried holding onto Albus. If he just held on, it would be okay. If he just didn’t let go, Albus would stay. There was a noise behind him somewhere, then someone, something touched his shoulder but before he could understand what or who it was, everything went black around him.

 ***

 

 

And suddenly Scorpius was thirteen again. He was sitting at his mothers bed, holding her hand, his father was sitting beside him. It was a cold and rainy Sunday morning, dark and foggy. Scorpius wasn’t feeling much different on the inside. His mothers hand was cold, she was shivering, his father was softly wiping her hair out of her face. She had gotten worse again, much worse and he had never seen his father looking so serious about it before. It scared him, but he tried not to show it. He needed to be strong for his mother. He wouldn’t give her up. He would keep holding her hand, that way she would stay with him. If he just wouldn’t let go. But then all of a sudden she started coughing, violently, and there was blood splattering the white sheets, and his father was ordering him harshly to go and get the doctor and so he let go of her hand.

When he returned, with the doctor and an anxiously pounding heart, out of breath, he found his father kneeling at the bed, his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking. At that moment he knew what had happened while he had left the room. But he didn’t understand. He didn’t understand how that could be. She had just been there, looked at him, talked to him, he didn’t understand how she would never be able to do that now. 

There were so many things happening at once then. At some point he had found himself in his father’s arms, uncontrollably sobbing into his expensive robes, shaking so much he hadn’t even been able to stand properly. After an eternity of sitting on the couch in their living room, crying and after he had felt like he had no tears left, his father had kneeled down in front of him, taken his hands and promised him to be there for him whenever he needed him and that they were going to stay through this together. He had never seen him like on that day before, nor after. There were tears in his eyes, his cheeks wet with them, he was trying so hard to be strong for his son. He didn’t remember what he had said, he didn’t remember much of that day or the following days either. But it didn’t matter because until today his father had always kept his promise.

“ _Scorpius_...”

It was dark around him, dark and cold. Like on that rainy Sunday. There was something wet touching the left side of his body, he was lying on a cool hard surface that was hurting his back and head. His head was spinning and he felt exhausted, like he had just ran all the way from the dungeons up to the Divination classroom. Divination. They had that later that day. Albus had complained at breakfast this morning, as always, he hadn’t even done the homework. Albus, his friend. Best friend.

Scorpius felt like he was waking up from a long and deep sleep even though he didn’t remember going to bed. The feelings slowly returned to his limbs, he stirred slightly, blinking slowly. A face swum into his vision, blurry and dark, he tried blinking a few times.

“Scorpius...”

That was undoubtedly his father’s voice. But what was he doing at Hogwarts? Or was he home already? Was it Christmas? He had a very bad nightmare, he suddenly remembered. Delphi had been there, she had switched bodies with Albus somehow, tried to kill him. And then Albus’ dad had been there, trying to stop her and accidentally... killing his son? He shuddered, swallowing, opening his eyes again.

His father was leaning over him, a highly concerned expression on his face that lessened a bit as soon as he looked at him.

“Scorpius, thank God... Are you okay? That’s not yours, is it...?” He gestured to his right, Scorpius frowned, slowly turning his head. As soon as he spotted the puddle of blood he was halfway lying in, the memory came back crashing down on him like a ton of bricks. It hadn’t been a nightmare at all.

Delphi, disguised as Albus in the Owlery, torturing him until suddenly the ground broke apart under his feet. Albus and his father, Harry dueling Delphi and then suddenly Albus had been hit by his curse and he had been bleeding so much, he had been _dying_...

He shot up and frantically looked around, despite the darkness threatening to overcome him again. The Owlery was empty, there was no one here except him and his dad, the door was open, snow blowing in, there was a trail of bloody footsteps leading out.

“Albus– where’s Albus?” He pushed away his father’s hands, struggling to his feet. Why was he gone? What happened? Immediately the worst case scenario seemed to burn through his brain, making his heart ache painfully in his chest. He focused back on his father who had gotten up as well, putting his hands gently on his shoulders, looking surprisingly close to tears. Scorpius already felt them dripping down his cheeks.

“Dad, where’s Albus? Is he–?”

He couldn’t say it. He couldn’t even imagine it. But _thank Merlin_  his father was shaking his head.

“No. Harry brought him up to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey is taking care of him, we’ll see if he needs to go to St Mungo’s...”

“A-and Delphi?”

“She’s captured. She’ll be going to Azkaban. If not worse.”

Scorpius didn’t bother to think what he meant by that, he didn’t care as long as she was gone and couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.

“I... I need to see Albus. Please, dad, can we...?”

Draco put his arm around his shoulders firmly, pulling him closer, briefly.

“Yes. Of course. We’ll be going immediately, just...” He took a deep shaky breath, that so wasn’t like him and pressed Scorpius close.

“I’m so glad you are okay, son.”

Scorpius swallowed, nodding softly, snuggling close to him for a bit. There was the strong urge to see Albus right now, if he was okay too, if he was still _there_. But his father had been worried, of course. He was his only family, they only had each other.

“I’m glad you’re here, dad...”

Draco leaned back again, hand briefly touching his cheek, before he gestured to the door.

“Let’s go. You should be with Albus in case–“

He abruptly stopped talking, eyes widening slightly, he quickly shook his head but Scorpius knew what he wanted to say.

“In case he gets worse”, Draco continued slowly, gesturing for him to go first. Scorpius did, he felt like he couldn’t stand but he needed to get to Albus. Get back to holding his hand. To being with him.

“Scorpius...” His father addressed him, halfway over the bridge, sounding a strange mixture of worry and shock. He looked at him and his dad reached out, stroking through his hair carefully. Scorpius swallowed and reached for it as well, his hair felt wet under his fingers. He glanced down on himself, swaying a bit. Albus’ blood had soaked through his robes, his shirt had a big red stain on it, his pants were sticking to his leg uncomfortably and apparently it was in his hair as well.

How much blood did he loose? Too much?

“Doesn’t matter now...”, he got out, well aware that they were about to enter the school right now and that all of the students would be wondering what happened. He couldn’t care less about that.

“No...”, his father just said, but wrapped his arm around him nonetheless before pushing open the door.

It felt like everything was in slow motion. Heads turned to them, people gasped, pointing at them. Draco made a gesture with his hand and they parted for them, he kept his head down, eyes lowered to the ground.

“What happened?”, he heard a girl whisper, hands clasped over her mouth.

“First Potter and now Malfoy...”

“This has nothing to do with Voldemort’s  daughter, has it?”

“Merlin’s beard, is that _blood_?”

“He’s full of it...”

“What’s his dad doing here?”

Scorpius took a deep shaking breath, ignoring them as best as he could. He was glad about his father firm grip around his shoulders. He was leading him to the infirmary, Scorpius’ heart was beating terribly fast, he was frightened of what he was about to see. If he would get to see Albus’ green eyes ever again.

His father stopped in front of the door for a second, casting him a glance.

“Scorpius. Remember, I’m with you. No matter what happens.”

Scorpius nodded, thankfully. But for now he just wanted to get to Albus.

Draco opened the door and together they hurried inside.

The first thing he noticed was that there was blood everywhere on the floor. Bloody footsteps, drops of blood leading to a bed at the end of the room. 

Scorpius’ heart set out when he noticed a group of people standing around the bed. There was Madam Pomfrey, performing a wand movement over Albus who was lying on the bed, looking even paler than before, his eyes were closed. Both of his parents were sitting with him, his brother and sister were there as well, Professor Slughorn was standing a few meters behind them, watching with a mortified expression. 

Harry turned around to him as they entered, quickly waving them closer.

Scorpius approached the bed carefully, his father followed behind. He held his breath when Albus’ dad got up and abruptly pulled him into his arms. That was something he hadn’t expected. If anything he thought he’d send them away because he wasn’t family and neither was his dad.

“I’m sorry, Scorpius... You– you passed out but I couldn’t do anything–...”

Scorpius closed his eyes, briefly hugging him back even when it felt strange. He understood, Albus was priority. He still was.

“It’s fine... I’m fine. How is he?”

Harry pulled away, Scorpius felt Draco’s hand on his shoulder again, squeezing supportively.

“He’s... unconscious. For now.”

Scorpius nodded, eyes wandering over Albus pale face, the wound on his cheek had been healed but the blood was still there. They had opened the buttons on his shirt, Madam Pomfrey was frantically waving her wand at him, looking highly concentrated. The wounds still weren’t closed, there was still blood, Scorpius felt sick just by looking at it. His fathers grip tightened a bit.

Scorpius cast a worried glance at Albus’ mum, she was sitting on a chair next to the bed, holding his hand, looking almost as pale as her son. He knew how she had to be feeling. He did so too.

Albus’ brother, James, had his arm wrapped around his sister, she looked like she was trying really hard not to cry and he was sure to never have seen James so serious before. Harry was softly pulling him closer to the bed and Scorpius shifted closer, eyes fixed on his best friends face. Albus wasn’t moving, he was lying there, looking so weak and lifeless, it was scaring him so much. And before he could stop himself he sank down on the chair Harry had sat on, grasping his hand.

“Albus.."

His fingers felt cold and stiff, just like his mums hand had felt back then. Scorpius closed his eyes, a shiver running down his back. What happened to his mum... it wouldn’t happen to Albus. It wouldn’t happen again. He wouldn’t lose a person who meant so much to him again. Not if he could prevent it. Not if he kept holding on.

“Scorpius...”, Harry mumbled, his voice was still trembling. Scorpius blinked and tears were running down his cheeks.

He wouldn’t give him up. He wouldn’t even _manage_ to live without Albus. 

His thoughts went back to the alternate reality where Voldemort had won. The doing of the Scorpion King, the torturing, the Dementors, everything had been awful, terrible, providing him nightmares until this day. But the worst thing was that Albus hadn’t been there. He had been alone, alone in this horrible world, no friend, no one he could talk to, no one who listened to him, no one to hug.

When the Dementors had come to him and Snape, when he told him to think of his best friend to fight them off, when there had been nothing but darkness in his head, Albus had been his light, the only thing making this worth fighting for. To be back with him. Just see him again, be with him again, maybe even hug him. He believed that was the moment he had realised just how much Albus meant to him. He had always known he was special, he had always felt special about him, but in that moment where they had emerged from the Great Lake, when he had seen his emerald eyes again, he had realized that he couldn’t imagine a life where he wasn’t in.

And he couldn’t. It wasn’t possible. It would be like he was with the Dementors all over again. A constant feeling of happiness being sucked out of him. The happiness that was Albus, that was his smile, his sparkling eyes, his body warmth, when they hugged unexpectantly, the faint blush in his cheeks, Scorpius had never understood why it was there when he had just taken his hand to pull him out of the way for a crowd of Gryffindor students to pass through. The happiness that was him listening to him rambling about _A History of Magic_  for hours, the tired smile on his face, when his hand laid over his wrist to tell him it was time to go to bed or they would sleep in and miss Divination again. The early mornings when he had to pull the blanket away from him because _just five more minutes, Scorp_ , and how messy his hair looked when he finally sat up to throw his pillow at him.

He couldn’t and didn’t want to imagine waking up in the morning and finding the bed next to him empty. Knowing there was no one who would sit through boring Divination with him and who’d show him how to stirr the potion correctly. No one telling him to tone down his excitement about Bathilda Bagshot a little bit because half of the Great Hall was staring at them. No one he could tell his secrets. No one to stand next to him at their graduation.

There was this one thing he needed to tell him still. This thing he believed Albus wanted to tell him too. He hoped he knew, he _desperately_ hoped he knew.

“Why doesn’t it do anything?”, James asked, speaking out what everyone was thinking. Madam Pomfrey hadn’t stopped making incantations and moving her wand over Albus but the bleeding hadn’t stopped yet.

“He’s still bleeding...” Lily mumbled, horrified, snuggling closer to James, watching her brother with wide eyes. Scorpius swallowed, squeezing Albus’ hand. Maybe he should let go, maybe his siblings would rather hold his hand. But he couldn’t, even if he would have wanted to.

“We need to get him to St Mungo’s, don’t we...?”, Harry whispered, shakily running his hand through his hair. “I’ll take him–“

“He can’t apparate, Harry...”, his wife replied, for the first time saying something, her voice wasn’t shaking but it was weaker and more quiet than usual. She was holding Albus other hand with both of hers. Harry stared at her, then back at his son, rubbing his eyes in distress.

“Then... I’ll go alone, get them here–“

“What spell did she use?” Draco asked suddenly, raising his voice, a deep frown on his face. Scorpius glanced up at him, what did that matter now?

Harry let out a shaky breath and Scorpius cast him a worried glance. It wasn’t her who had cast that spell. But if he revealed that now, it wouldn’t exactly improve the situation. If all, it would only cause more panic. Albus’ dad met his eyes for barely a second but it was enough for Scorpius to very lightly shake his head.

“Sectumsempra,” Harry then mumbled, just loud enough for them to hear. Something changed in his father’s face, he got out his wand, approaching the bed.

“Madam.” He said, gently touching Madam Pomfreys shoulder. “Step aside, please.”

“No”, Ginny suddenly got up, stabbing her finger at Draco. “You’re not using Dark Magic on my son!”

Draco clenched his jaw, raising his wand. Scorpius’ eyes anxiously went from his father to Harry, who was staring at Draco, his eyes widened as if he remembered something. He reached for his wife’s arm.

“No, Ginny... Let him. Besides, we don’t have a choice.”

“It’s not Dark Magic, Ginny...”, Draco explained, surprisingly calm, stepping closer, Madam Pomfrey took a step back, gesturing for him to go for it.

“At least I don’t think so. It’s the same spell Snape used on me back then.”

Scorpius frowned, he had never told him of something like that. But Harry nodded quickly, apparently knowing what he meant.

“Do it, Draco. Please.” He took a step back, burying his face in his hands. Ginny joined him, leaning into him.

Scorpius didn't know if he wanted to let go of Albus. His father was making a complicated move with his wand, then let it wander over his chest, mumbling something that sounded like “ _Vulnera Sanentur_...”

For a second nothing happened and Scorpius’ heart sank even deeper. Then a glowing light came out of his father’s wand, the blood got less, it almost looked like it was sucked back into him...

Scorpius could only stare as his wounds, the deep cuts running over his chest slowly began to heal, the blood vanished until nothing but faint white scars remained visible on his skin.

Draco opened his eyes, lowering his wand, inspecting Albus carefully. Scorpius couldn’t believe it, leaning forward as well. Did he just... fully heal him? How did he know how?

“That was it, right?”, his father asked into the silence, turning to Albus’ parents. “No other injuries?”

Harry shook his head and Scorpius did too, not taking his eyes of Albus. Slowly, as if it didn’t dare to yet, relief settled over him. He was fine. He was actually going to be fine. He wasn’t going to die.

“Mr Malfoy... How do you know–?”, Slughorn asked, gesturing to Albus, visibly shocked. Scorpius cast his father a curious look. He put his wand back into his coat, eyes wandering over to Harry, his expression as unreadable as always.

“Well... Harry used this spell on me once, when I was sixteen. In a stupid illegal duel in a bathroom”, he added, shaking his head at the stupidity of this memory. “Snape invented it. And he also was the one who healed me later on with a counter spell. I’ve memorized it... just in case.”

His father had never told him that. Scorpius looked over at Albus’ siblings, Lily looked shocked but James not so much, Harry had probably told him of that sometime. Maybe to stop him from having illegal duels in bathrooms.

He wanted to get up and hug his father, thank him over and over for saving his best friend but apparently Albus’ mum thought the same. She let go of Harry, throwing her arms around Draco, squeezing tightly, his father gave a noise of surprise.

“Thank you, Draco, thank you so much. You saved his life. We’ll be forever in your debt...”

His father looked highly uncomfortable, started patting her back helplessly. Scorpius managed a weak smile, turning back to Albus. Surely he would wake up soon. Open his beautiful green eyes and smile again as soon as he saw him. Perhaps it would take a while but he would get well again, he would complain about Divination again. And they would finally talk about it. He would finally tell him how much he needed him. Now he wanted him to know more than ever.

“It’s fine, Ginny...”

She pulled away, holding onto his hands, quickly wiping away a tear, shaking her head.

“Thank you...”

To Scorpius’ surprise Harry pulled Draco into a hug as well, it was just as fierce as Ginny’s and his dad looked even more uncomfortable than at the first hug, but briefly put his arms around him, rubbing his back.

“It’s fine, really. I’m glad the boy’s okay now...”

Harry didn’t care so much about the tears running down his face, he didn’t bother wiping them away like his wife, he just frantically nodded, looking awfully thankful and overwhelmed and was probably glad when his children jumped up to hug him a little bit more enthusiastic than Scorpius’ dad.

“He’ll be okay, dad...”, James mumbled, squeezing his sister tightly to his side.

“And she’s behind bars. She can’t hurt him again...”

Harry nodded weakly, closing his eyes and Scorpius felt his father returning to his side, putting his hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly.

“You’re okay?”, he asked quietly, Scorpius nodded and it was honest. He was now. Now that Albus was as well.

“Good.”

“Mr Potter, Miss Potter, now that this is... taken care of, you can return to you lessons”, Madam Pomfrey adressed James and Lily, who immediately protested.

“He’s my brother, we want to stay until he wakes up!”

“Lily”, Ginny warned, softly shaking her head. “Albus needs to rest.”

“You’ll be informed immediately when he wakes up, promise”, Harry added, squeezing them tightly. Lily pouted and James looked like he’d rather be suspended than leave the room, but they both nodded reluctantly. Draco was talking quietly to Madam Pomfrey a few meters away from the bed, Scorpius watched him gesturing down on himself and she nodded. He turned back to Albus, unsurely, maybe they would want him to leave too. He was a student too after all. And not Potter family. But no one told him to and he heard steps leaving the infirmary, still didn’t turn around. He grabbed the blanket, carefully pulling it over Albus, fingers hovering over his scarred chest for a moment, before he leaned back. He’d be fine. He couldn’t believe it. He would be Albus again. They could be friends again.

“Scorpius...?”

He slowly turned his head, looking up at Harry, noticing surprised that his father and everyone else had left. He swallowed, not wanting to leave Albus, however selfish it might be. He wanted to be there when he woke up again. He wanted to see that he really was alright, that he was alive and well.

But his father probably wanted to be with him now. He cleared his throat, forcing himself to let go of Albus’ hand.

“Sorry, I’ll be going–“

“No, no, it’s fine... stay...”

Scorpius looked up, surprised. He allowed him to stay? Harry managed a tiny smile, sitting down on the chair next to him. He buried his hands in his pockets, visibly trying to look casual but failing miserably. Scorpius couldn’t blame him; his son had almost died. And it would have been his fault, even if he hadn’t intended to.

“Thank you, Scorpius.” His voice was quiet, he wasn’t looking at him, focusing Albus. “For... not saying it was me who cast the spell.”

Scorpius nodded softly. It didn’t matter. He had wanted to hurt Delphi, not him. He wanted to set an end to her game. It was the right thing to do in that moment, he could understand him. But he never could have attacked Albus, if there was someone else in his body or not.

“I... I know you didn’t want to hurt him.”

Harry sighed, taking off his glasses, rubbing his eyes.

“No... I didn’t know what I was doing... I was just so... angry at her. That she put Albus through all that. He was in Azkaban, in a cell, I let that happen... I let my son get imprisoned for... for almost three weeks, and I didn’t even notice something was wrong!”

He sounded so frustrated, leaning forward, burying his face in his hands. Scorpius felt like he might cry again.

“I didn’t either. Delphi was too good, we didn’t have a chance.”

He carefully watched Harry, noticing there was still blood on his clothes as well, Scorpius shivered slightly.

“I suppose... still... I’m his dad...” His voice broke and Scorpius had the urge to reach out and hug him as well. He didn’t know if it was... well, _appropriate_ though.

“And I’m his best friend... And she’s Voldemort’s daughter. Don’t... don’t blame yourself. Mr Potter”, he added because he suddenly felt like calling him by his first name was too private.

Harry took several deep breaths, Scorpius watched him worried. He had never seen him like this. He had always come across as resolved and confident and _strong_ , knowing what he was doing. He had always looked up to him, to Harry Potter, the savior of the Wizarding World, despite what his grandparents had said. This image had crumbled a bit when he had kept them apart last year, but it never vanished completely. He knew he cared for Albus very much. As much as he did.

“Thank you for helping me...”, he then said, glancing at him, nodding softly. Scorpius bit his lip, nodding back. He hadn’t been much of a help.

“You... you should get changed...”, he mumbled, gesturing up and down at him vaguely. “You’re full of blood...”

Scorpius nodded again, making no move though. He didn’t want to leave Albus. Harry smiled weakly as if he had read his thoughts.

“Don’t worry, I’ll let you know when he wakes up.”

Scorpius’ eyes wandered back to Albus, he probably couldn’t be much of a help now anyway. And he didn’t want to face Albus like this when he woke up either. Even when he felt a bit queasy at the thought of walking through the school like this.

He managed a nod, slowly getting up, brushing some invisible dust of his clothes. Albus would be fine, his dad was with him. He would dress in something else and maybe take a shower and come back here. By then Albus would be awake...

“Scorpius?” Harry mumbled again and he turned around to his best friend’s dad. He was trying his best to smile up at him, but Scorpius could see it was honest.

“You’re a very good friend to Albus. I’m glad he has you.”

For some reason that made tears dwell up in his eyes, he managed a nod, returning his smile weakly.

“Thank you...”

Maybe it was because in that weird other world Harry had kept them apart, maybe because he had once believed he really was Voldemort’s son.

“I’m glad I have him too.”

Harry’s smile grew a bit, before he leaned closer to Albus, hesitantly taking his hand between his. Scorpius knew that probably was the moment he should leave.

“Well... I’ll be right back.”

With one last glance on Albus, he left the infirmary, heading to the dungeons. There were surprisingly little students in the corridors, Scorpius wondered if the lessons had started already or if maybe McGonagall had ordered them to return to their classes or houses. He could only hope the Slytherin common room wouldn’t be crowded with curious students. And where were his dad and Albus’ mum? Perhaps they were talking to McGonagall or Slughorn, telling them what had happened. Even though... only he, Harry and Albus knew the truth.

And Delphi. Was she in Azkaban already? In the same cell Albus had been in? He shuddered at the thought. His best friend in prison... He knew some things about Azkaban. They had got rid of the Dementors a while ago, thankfully, there were Aurors patrolling the cells now, serving food three times a week. He wondered how Albus must have felt. Waking up in there, behind bars in a body that wasn’t his, being treated like a criminal by the guards... He didn’t even want to imagine how horrible it must’ve been. Thank goodness, Harry believed him. He didn’t know how he managed to talk to him, but he was very glad about it. He didn’t want to know what Delphi would have done to him if they hadn’t intervened.

If he thought about how blind he had been the last days... Not noticing Albus wasn’t himself. Not realizing it wasn’t his best friend that had come to his bed last night, crying after a nightmare. How couldn’t he have noticed? He knew him for almost five years, they went through so much together...

But he could blame himself later. He knew Delphi was a good liar, he knew she had exchanged letters with Albus and he wouldn’t even be surprised if she could read his mind as well. For now he needed to concentrate on Albus and Albus only. He was going to be fine, he was safe, he was with him again. That was what counted.

 


	7. Harry

Harry could only stare at his youngest son lying in that hospital bed, pale as a ghost and still unconscious, his hand between his and feel beyond guilty.

All this was his fault and his alone. Yes, Delphi had cast this curse in the first place, changing into his son but he had been the person to fire Snape’s self invented spell at his own son, knowing exactly what it did and what it left behind. He had been so angry, not caring at all, wanting all this to end right now. But of course Delphi had seen through him, she had been one step ahead of him again, reversing that spell at the exact right moment. And he had hurt him, he had hurt his own son, he had almost _killed_ him... 

Burying his face in his hands, he took a deep breath, trying to push these mental images out of his head. Albus would be fine. Thanks to Draco. He hadn’t even thought about him possibly knowing how to heal the wounds caused by Sectumsempra. He needed to properly thank him later... 

He hadn’t even been able to help his son. He had tried to, he would have used every healing spell he knew on him, but his head had been empty. There had been nothing but fear and panic, that made him completely black out, he didn’t know if he could ever forgive himself for that. And as much as it bothered him to admit, Delphi had been right, he had been too scared to help his son. Too scared to loose him. And it would have been his fault indeed. 

“Scorpius...”, Albus suddenly whispered, turning his head to the side, Harry’s head snapped up, intensely staring at his son, but he didn’t wake up. He was snoring slightly, asleep and mumbling his best friends name while doing so. He cast a glance at the door, but Scorpius wasn’t back yet. He would soon, he had been so reluctant to leave, probably even more than James and Lily. Albus apparently meant a lot to him. He knew he did. He had been there for Albus whenever he needed him. In contrary to him. 

The poor boy, he had gotten so pale suddenly, holding his best friend in his arms, clothes soaking through with his blood, his whole body shaking, until he passed out and Harry really couldn’t blame him. He just wished he could have done something, _anything_. But thankfully Draco, Ginny and Professor Slughorn had arrived almost two minutes later, immediately helping him carry Albus to the hospital wing, while Draco had wanted to take care of his unconscious son. 

“Dad...?”

Harry moved closer to the bed with his chair, stroking his sons hand. Albus stirred slightly, his hand twitching in his, eyelids fluttering. He could only hope he wouldn’t be mad at him. That he would forgive him. 

“Albus...?”

His son slowly blinked, tiredly opening his eyes, glancing around the room before finding his. Harry tried a comforting smile, wanting to show him that he was safe now. That he would be fine. And that he was so, so sorry.

“Dad...”, he mumbled again, still sounding very tired, Harry patted his hand.

“How are you feeling, Albus?”

His eyes wandered around the room again, probably searching for his friend and back to him when he didn’t find him. 

“I... I’m... I don’t know...” He sounded so honest, Harry had the strong urge to pull him into his arms, but he didn’t want to hurt him. Again. 

“Does anything hurt?” 

Albus glanced down on himself, carefully touching his chest and stomach, slowly shaking his head. Harry sighed in relief, still holding onto his hand. Good, he had already feared there would be a lasting pain, he would have felt even worse about himself. 

“Good, uhm... You passed out on the way up here, Draco healed you.”

Albus slowly nodded, confused, he glanced past him again.

“Where’s Scorpius...?”

Of course he wanted to see him. Rather see him.

“He’ll be right back...” 

Albus nodded, slowly turning to the side, not pulling his hand out of his and Harry was very glad about it. He thought of what to say, there were a million things he wanted to get out, wanted him to known, the most important thing was to apologize. He opened his mouth to do just that but Albus quietly cut him off before he could say something.

“I... I thought I was going to die, dad...”

His son squeezed his hand, Harry moved over to sit next to him on his bed, once again not knowing how to respond to that. But Albus looked at him like he desperately wanted him to say something. He took a deep breath, pulling the blanket up over him to buy himself a little more time to think about his words. 

“I... thought so too.”

Albus eyes widened in shock but he wanted to be honest with him. His son bit his lip, blinking against the tears dwelling in his eyes.

“Oh...”

“I was so scared, Albus.” Harry got out and then the words came stumbling over his lips before he could stop them. 

“I never wanted to hurt you, I just wanted to stop Delphi, before she kills someone. I thought it was her still, I didn’t realize... And then you were bleeding so much and I didn’t know what to do, I... I tried to help, but I just– couldn’t, I don’t know... It was like... there was something stopping me, because I was so, _so_ scared to hurt you...”

Albus swallowed visibly, there were tears running down his still pale cheeks, he didn’t bother wiping them away and Harry still didn’t dare to. 

“I got you up here as soon as I could, I know I could never forgive myself if you... If I had... done something irreversible.” 

He tightly squeezed his hands. 

“I’m so utterly sorry to have hurt you. Can you... how can you ever forgive me?”

Albus stared up at him, blinking away his tears, then lowered his eyes, his lips trembling. 

“Well... a... a lifetime supply of Chocolate Frogs would be a good start...”

Harry gaped a him, his brain slowly processing that he was joking. This was hardly the time but he was glad Albus was apparently still able to. 

Albus slowly sat up, facing him and Harry finally managed to reach out and gently wipe the tears off his cheeks.

“Sure, of course... And Bertie Botts Beans and Sherbet Lemons and... And Peppermint Toads– no, you don’t like those, do you?” 

Albus softly shook his head, managing a smile. It was tired and weak, but it was undoubtedly there. And that was enough for Harry to jump forward and pull his son into his arms. His son hugged him back immediately, snuggling close to him and Harry couldn’t remember when they had hugged like that the last time. 

“I’m sorry, Albus...”, he got out, his voice shaking again, “I’m sorry I didn’t notice, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. You’re my son and I... as my father it is my job to protect you. To be there for you, to listen to you. And I failed... again.”

“You didn’t fail...”, Albus mumbled, resting his head on his shoulder. Harry carefully rubbed his back, still afraid. He just wanted to protect him, wanted him to feel loved, because that was what he was. 

“I’m sorry...”, he simply said again, because he didn’t know what else. 

“It’s fine, dad. Really. I’m just... glad that it’s over...”

“Me too. I’m glad you’re finally safe.”

He leaned back, hands remaining on Albus’ shoulders. His son looked back at him, nodding lightly, before leaning back into his pillow. 

“Where... what happened to Delphi?"

“She’ll be going to Azkaban. She’ll get a trial and presumably spent the rest of her life there.” 

McGonagall had taken care of it. Informed the Ministry immediately, he didn’t know what happened, he had wanted to stay at his sons side. But they had taken her away, bringing her to Azkaban, for real this time. 

“Good. That’s what she deserves.”

He nodded, not feeling good at the thought of his son having to experience that. Once again a wave of guilt came crashing over him. He didn’t know how he could ever make up for that. He swore to himself to never let anything happen to Albus ever again. Never. 

He pulled the blanket a bit over Albus again, gently patting his leg. 

“Now, rest a bit. Scorpius will be back soon as well–“

“Scorpius?”, Albus almost sat up again, but Harry softly pushed him back, nodding with a smile. 

“How is he?”, he asked a bit anxiously, crossing his arms, eyes wandering to the door once again.

“He’s good, I think. Now, that you’re okay.” 

“He passed out, didn’t he? Before I did?”

Harry nodded slowly. 

“He was very scared for you, Albus. His father took care of him after we left...”

Albus nodded, chewing on his lip. Harry simply patted his leg again, sitting back down on the chair. Scorpius was alright, he was when Albus was. 

With a creaking sound the door opened, Harry turned his head. Speak of the devil... 

Scorpius strolled back in, wearing clean clothing, his hair was slightly wet, Harry remembered blood being in there as well. His eyes lit up as he noticed Albus being awake, he practically ran up to his bed, eyes shining. It was quite adorable, Harry had to admit. But he supposed he had been just as scared for Albus, they were best friends after all. 

Scorpius stopped, skipping in front of his bed, Albus looked just as happy to see him.

“Albus,” he said, smiling brightly but with a hint of shyness. Maybe because he was still in the room. He stared at them for another few seconds before forcing himself to get up. 

“I’ll be... right back.”

“Dad...?” Albus addressed him, he turned around once more. His son was smiling a bit embarassed.

“I’m kind of very hungry...” 

“Of course. I’ll get you something. Scorpius, for you too?” 

The Malfoy boy nodded softly, slowly sitting down on his chair.

“If it doesn’t trouble you.”

“It doesn’t. I’ll be right back.”

He left the two boys alone, stopping in front of the door, when he heard their voices from the inside. 

“... I’m so glad you’re okay, you don’t even know...”, Scorpius was rambling loudly, Harry leaned against the door, it was still open a little bit. He really seemed to have missed him. 

“That looked bad, Albus, really bad, I was so scared...”

He peeked through the door, spotting the boys on the bed, Scorpius had moved over, hugging Albus as tightly as humanly possible. He hugged him back just as fierce, eyes closed. 

“Me too... God, you don’t even know how much that hurt...”

Harry swallowed, his heart ached at his words, he swore to himself to do his best to make up for it somehow. No matter how. He had to. 

“I can imagine...”, Scorpius apparently didn’t want to let go of him ever again, he was tightly holding onto Albus’ shirt, head resting on his shoulder. 

“It hurt too, seeing you like that. I... wanted to do something, you know, to help you, but I didn’t know how...”

Scorpius’ voice had gotten more quiet, sounding a bit as if it was muffled by something, probably Albus’ clothes. 

“Scorpius... this is not your fault.”

No, it wasn’t. Harry suppressed a sigh. It was alone his fault. He was glad the blonde boy had wanted to help him. He probably wouldn’t have sat there doing nothing if he would’ve known a spell. 

“Mh... still... I really thought it was you, Albus... she was so good at pretending...” 

“What... what did she do?” 

Scorpius sighed, still holding on to him. 

“Everything... You... she came up to me last night after a nightmare, just like you used to do... She was crying, shaking and I... I comforted her, I let her–“ He drew in a shaky breath as if he just now realized. “I let her sleep in my bed...”

Harry with a held breath watched how Albus pulled him closer into his arms, so close he almost sat on top of his lap. 

“Scorpius... Merlin, I’m sorry you had to go through this...”

“No, it’s my fault for not noticing it wasn’t you in there, you had it so much worse, in Azkaban... Albus... they didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“No, they didn’t... It was just... really cold and... scary.”

_Scary_. His son had been scared. Of course he had been, scared to death probably. Being locked in Azkaban. In a cell, surrounded by Death Eaters, in a body that wasn’t his own. He couldn’t even imagine how that must have been for his son, for his only _fourteen_ years old son... Harry leaned against the door, letting out a quiet deep breath, closing his eyes. He should have noticed earlier. He should never have sent him– _her_ back to school, endangering his best friend and so many other students. If something had happened to them, something serious... That would have been his fault. Because he had been too blind to notice his son wasn’t his son, because he didn’t know his son well enough to realize it hadn’t even _been him_...

He pressed his lips together, feeling hot tears dwelling in his eyes. This was his fault and his alone. Everything was. And he had no idea how to ever make up for that. 

“I can imagine... you’re safe now. You’re back with me, Delphi’s gone...”

Albus didn’t say anything, snuggling so very close to him, Harry felt almost inappropriate to watch them like this. His son never hugged him like this. In fact he had never seen him hug someone like that... But he was glad he had such a good friend. Someone he trusted that much. 

“You know, when I was... unconscious... I had this weird dream...”, Albus began and he sounded like it took all of his courage to get the words over his lips. 

“And... Dumbledore was in it. And... my grandparents, Lily and James... And, Scorpius... your mum.”

Harry froze, slowly turning back to the door. Albus took a deep breath.

“She... we talked...and she told me she saw how much y-you mean to me and... and that it’s not... my time.” 

“My mum?”, Scorpius echoed breathlessly, shifting even closer to him, Albus nodded softly, eyes lowered to the blanket. Harry suddenly felt as if the world started spinning around him, he reached for the door knob to support himself. Scorpius’ mother was dead. Did that mean...? 

“But that was just a dream, right...?”, Albus’ voice was shaking, Scorpius nodded slowly, wiping tears of his cheeks, before grabbing Albus’ hands. 

“Yes... of course. My mum’s dead...”

For a moment no one of them said anything and Harry tried to digest what Albus had just told his best friend. Dumbledore had been there he had said. He remembered the last time he had talked to Dumbledore, in person, not to a portrait. Voldemort had killed him, he had been dead. He suddenly felt sick. Albus, _his son_ , too? Did he loose that much blood? Were his injuries that bad? Could it be? 

“But Albus...”, Scorpius started again, sounding deeply worried, “Can’t it be that you... that there was a point where you... I mean, where it was really bad and you–“

“Died? No. Scorpius, no. I’m right here, aren’t I? I’m alive.” Albus grabbed Scorpius’ hand, pressing it to his chest right above his heart as if to show him that it was still beating. Harry had the strange urge to feel for it as well. 

“Yes, _now_ , but–“

Albus cut him off by frantically shaking his head, grabbing his friends shoulders. 

“No. Even if I... you know, _died_ , it doesn’t matter, I’m back. No need to worry, right?”

“Albus–“ 

“I won’t leave you, Scorpius. Okay? I wouldn’t do that. Ever. I’m here, alive and with you, you hear me? And I’ll stay.”

Albus put his hands to his friends cheeks, a gesture that was so intimate, Harry should’ve probably asked himself it it was too much for just _best mates_ , but he couldn’t spare that a single thought now. His son had died, or had been very close to dying, leaving him forever. He had seen his parents, Scorpius’ mother and Dumbledore, just like Harry himself had. He had nearly _killed_ his own son.

He felt weirdly dizzy and his knees were weak, he was holding onto that doorknob to remain upright. 

If Draco hadn’t been there to save him, if he wouldn’t have remembered that healing spell, it would’ve all been over. He would’ve lost his own son for good. And it would’ve been his fault, despite Delphi being the one who had started all this. She had provoked him but he didn’t have to give in, but he had. And she was cruel, she had known exactly what she was doing. And he had stepped right into her trap. He had almost killed him. Ginny would have never forgiven him, his children neither, Scorpius would’ve been destroyed by it and he was sure to couldn’t have lived with it himself. 

He took a deep breath, then another one. He was fine. Albus was fine. He was alive, just like he said, being in that room on that bed, talking to Draco Malfoy’s son, it was okay. He wasn’t injured anymore, he was good. He’d live and he’d live at least a hundred years, safe and happy. He would make sure of that. 

“Please don’t tell my dad, okay...? He’ll only blame himself more.”

“Sure...”, Scorpius mumbled, reaching up to put his hand on his. 

“I won’t say a word.”

“Thank you...”, Albus replied, looking right back into Scorpius eyes, honest and relieved, before he pulled him into another hug. 

“Albus... You can’t just ask me to forget that, you know...? _But_... I hope you at least made a good impression on my mum.” 

“Scorpius!”

Albus leaned back, staring at him, Scorpius chuckled warmly, nudging his nose with his finger, smiling. 

“Don’t worry.” 

Albus apparently didn’t know what to say to that so he remained silent, simply smiling at him. Harry suddenly remembered him telling him he was hungry and that he had promised him to get something to eat. He would probably like that. They would like that. He slowly let go of the door handle, making his way towards the kitchen, the guilty feeling inside of him growing with every step.

 


	8. Albus

“But the most disturbing thing about all this was definitely being a woman.”

 

Albus leaned back, watching Scorpius, he laughed, cocking his head with an amused frown.

“Why?”

He was sitting so close, next to him on the bed, their legs were touching, their hands were intwined and it had never felt so good. He wanted to stay like this, forever if possible.

“The long hair. It was basically everywhere.”

Scorpius giggled and Albus’ heart felt warm. He had missed this so much. Him. Sleeping on the floor, not eating and freezing, it was fine but living without Scorpius? Horrible.

“But it was nothing compared to this sudden... blood. You know, girls have that thing were they all of the sudden bleed out of... down there. And I got really bad stomach cramps, it was the worst, Scorpius.”

“Oh wow...”, Scorpius sounded a strange mixture of pitiful and amused, shaking his head. Albus didn’t escape how his gaze briefly wandered down on him and he felt his cheeks rapidly heat up.

“That sounds very disturbing indeed.”

He chuckled lightly, squeezing his hands.

“I prefer you as a boy anyway.”

“Me too...”, Albus replied, meeting his eyes for a few seconds too long. There was still something he needed to tell him, something he already wanted to tell him when he had been lying in his father’s arms, certain to not make it alive out of this. He needed him to know.

“Scorpius.” That was where his plan ended. What even was he going to say? He hadn’t phrased it out in his head, he didn’t know how to put it in words...

“Albus.” Scorpius said, cheerfully, just like the Scorpius Albus adored so much. He cleared his throat, lowering his eyes to their intertwined hands. Well, it couldn’t be that difficult.

“Er... remember when I said earlier... that I wanted to tell you something?”

“Yeah, I remember quite well, even though I was scared that might be the last thing you’ll ever say to me.”

Scorpius clearly was joking but his voice was quiet, he obviously was still thinking about it. Albus was a bit glad it was all very blurry for him.

“It was– it _is_ really important. And I want you to know... even if that means it will affect our friendship.”

He didn’t dare to look up but he believed to see Scorpius nodding. 

He really hoped it wouldn’t destroy everything they had. He doubted it would but there still was this ridiculous fear of Scorpius being mad at him. He knew how his best friend could be when he was mad and he didn’t want that to happen again.

“Okay. I’m listening.” He squeezed his hands supportively. “And after that I have to tell you something too...”

Albus nodded, biting his lip, a bit curious what he wanted to tell him. He’d just get this over with. Maybe they could even move on as if nothing happened after that.

“Alright...” He took a deep breath, shifting a bit in his seat on the bed, meeting his eyes. He needed to see his reaction. Scorpius’ beautiful grey eyes looked back into his expectantly. He had thought about this for a long time. If it was normal to consider your best friends eyes _beautiful_. If it was normal to find his smile lovely and the way he always babbled about books adorable. If it was normal to want to be this close to him, to feel so very warm and content whenever their hands accidentally touched. He wanted him to know. Know if Scorpius felt the same way, even when the possibility was very very little.

“So... I know we’re best friends and I really like that... having you as a best friend...” He cringed at his own words but kept going.

“And... technically I wouldn’t want anything to change but at the same time I... I’d like to... uhm...” He thought for a moment, Scorpius was watching him patiently.

“Uhm... well, my feelings changed. My feelings for you. For the better, I mean. Of course. I... I was just thinking... that maybe... I like you a bit more than... as friends.”

Merlin, he was bad at this. Scorpius probably thought he had lost his mind or there was still some Delphi in him. He was staring at him, curiously, eyebrows wandering up slightly. Albus swallowed, trying a smile that came out as quite pathetic in his opinion.

“Yeah... I just... wanted to get that out.”

“That was everything?” Scorpius’ lips curled up into a gentle, slightly amused smile, Albus nodded quickly. Okay, he said it. Now it was Scorpius’ turn to decide what to do with that knowledge.

“What, uh, did you want to say?”

Perhaps he could just pretend that didn’t happen. Scorpius shifted a bit closer, still smiling so brightly, it gave Albus a tiny bit of hope back. He never expected Scorpius to return his advanced feelings, he just wanted him to... accept it? He deserved to know, didn’t he?

“Well. Albus. Basically... I figured out the same.”

Albus blinked. So he knew how he was feeling? He understood? Okay. Alright. And what was he supposed to say now?

Apparently his expression had been so obviously shocked, Scorpius was grinning at him, softly nudging his shoulder, then immediately backing of, waving his hands.

“No, sorry! Sorry, I forgot, I didn’t want to hurt you!”

Albus quickly shook his head, the pain was practically gone.

“You didn’t. So uhm... where were we?”

“Right.” Scorpius moved closer again, gently stroking over his fingers.

“You know, I had this embarrassingly big crush on Rose... But... after I came back from that world, where Voldemort had ruled, everything was... different. You know, I didn’t think of her when I fought off those Dementors. I didn’t change that world back to be with Rose again... I did it for you.”

He briefly squeezed his hand, Albus couldn’t help but smile.

“And for your parents and siblings and your whole family basically, including mine and probably all of Hogwarts _but_ especially for you”, he quickly added and Albus snorted.

Scorpius grinned, moving even closer, gently reaching up to touch his cheek, Albus felt himself promptly blushing. Suddenly the thought if he had done the same with Delphi still in his body crossed his mind, he quickly pushed it away. Why would he?

“Sooo... I was going to ask Rose out, because I liked her for such a long time and I didn’t think that would ever change. But it did change. So. Here I am.”

He gently stroked his cheek, smiling a bit embarassed, but softly. 

“Asking _you_ out.”

Albus stared back at him, feeling his fingers stroking over his face, a gesture that felt weirdly intimate but he found himself caring very little.

“Out? Like... on a date?”

“Yeah? Hogsmeade, maybe. When you’re well again?” Scorpius shrugged sheepishly, not taking down his hand. Albus felt a smile creeping on his lips.

“We would have went to Hogsmeade together anyway.”

Scorpius lovingly rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug.

“Well, that’s just fortunate.”

Albus hugged him back, couldn’t stop smiling. He couldn’t believe it. Perhaps he had actually died and this was some kind of weird personal heaven? If so, it wasn’t that bad. But no, Scorpius’ arms around him felt very real and his heart drumming against his chest too. 

“Yup...”, he mumbled, softly stroking his back. After everything that happened... He felt like he knew how fast it could be over. And if there was one thing he had regretted in his almost last moments, it was not having told Scorpius about his feelings earlier.

The door swung open with a loud creaking sound and they slowly parted again, Scorpius was blushing slightly, crossing his arms. Albus turned to whoever had come in and (unfortunately) interrupted them.

It were his siblings, Lily practically sprinted through the hospital wing, jumping into his bed, into his arms. James soon joined her and Albus felt himself being squeezed between his brother and sister. Scorpius chuckled softly.

“Albus, you’re awake! How are you?”

“I’m good. Very good.”

Lily squeezed him tightly, he couldn’t breathe for a second.

“I’m so glad! We were so scared...”

He softly rubbed her back, managing an awkward smile. They had all been so worried, he’d rather not tell him of his near death experience...

“Yeah, Albus...” James was putting his arm around his shoulder, squeezing him just as tightly. “Dad was shaking so much he almost couldn’t hold you...”

Albus leaned against him, closing his eyes for a moment. He’d rather not imagine that. He didn’t remember his father bringing him up here to the castle, the last thing he knew was Scorpius passing out all of the sudden, the door opening and his father scooping him up in his arms. And the next thing he had seen was a strange bright room that looked a bit like the inside of the Hogwarts Express. He had opened the door to one of the compartments, surprised to find Albus Dumbledore himself in there, looking just as he did on the portrait in Hogwarts. Next to him sitting were his father’s parents, his grandparents looking not a day older than when he had seen them in Godric’s Hollow. And despite having seen her the last time almost five years ago, he had recognized the woman sitting opposite of them instantly. She had beautiful ebony hair and warm eyes just like her son, had softly patted the seat next to her for him to sit down. _“Where am I?”_ He had asked, scared to know the answer. He had known all the people in this room were dead. _"Don't worry, Albus. It's not your time”_ , Scorpius’ mother had said and Lily and James and Dumbledore had smiled at him. Then it all went black again and he had opened his eyes to his father sitting next to his bed in the infirmary, holding his hand.

“Al?”, James’ worried voice asked, Albus blinked, focusing back on his brother sitting next to him. It was over, he was back here, even when it had been frighteningly real.

“Yeah... well, I’m fine now."

“Thank Dumbledore for that.”

Lily snuggled to his side while James pulled him closer again, eyes scanning him, a grin tugging on his lips.

“Everything back where it should be?”

Albus grimaced, nudging his ribs.

“I sure hope so. Haven’t looked yet.”

“Yeah, maybe Scorpius can do that for you...” James winked at his best friend who blushed as red as his brothers Gryffindor tie. Lily giggled and Albus just lowered his gaze embarassed. Why did he always have to tease him? Now, when he and Scorpius just...

But he would take James’ teasing over dying anytime.

***

 

 

 

Albus had just finished telling James and Lily everything that happened, when the door opened again and his father entered, two plates in his hands.

“Mhh..” Scorpius made, taking in the smell that was roast beef with potatoes, Albus managed a smile at his father, who handed them their plates, before sitting down on one of the chairs.

“Feeling a bit better, Albus?”

His father was looking quite tired, but he smiled, even when it was forced. Albus nodded, picking up a potato with his fork. His dad must be feeling awful, he once again felt the need to tell him it wasn’t his fault. He had wanted to save them, he _had_ saved him and Scorpius from Delphi. He didn’t want to hurt him. He was his dad, of course he didn’t want to hurt him. Still, he could see he was blaming himself.

“Yes, thank you dad. You’re the best”, he added, with a nod to the potatoes, Harry reached over to pat his knee, smiling honest but exhausted.

“Sure... Your mum’s coming too, Albus. She was just talking to McGonagall and Slughorn.”

Albus nodded, smiling at the thought. He’d love to see his mum again, had she been here already? She had to be so worried too, he felt a bit guilty. He wouldn’t tell her of his _dream_ or whatever it was either. It didn’t matter anyway. It would make them feel worse. And he was done with people feeling bad because of him.

“Great”, he gave his father another smile, Harry nodded, glancing at Scorpius.

“Your dad, too. Wants to see how you’re doing...”

Scorpius’ smile grew, he cast Albus a glance. He squeezed his hand under the blanket, intertwining their fingers.

“I’m hungry too, dad. Why didn’t you get us anything?” James complained, Harry rolled his eyes, softly shaking his head.

“Because you’re not lying in a hospital bed, James. You can go and get yourself some, it’s almost lunchtime.”

“Scorpius is not lying in a hospital bed either.” Lily pointed out, grinning, Albus grimaced.

“I can, though.” Scorpius quickly gestured next to him and Albus blushed even more. He had nothing against Scorpius crawling under the blanket with him but not with his whole family watching. Harry smiled a bit irritated.

“No– yes... We’ll wait for your dad.”

Not two minutes later the door opened again and Ginny and Draco came in, behind them Madam Pomfrey. Albus smiled as his mum rushed towards him, pulling him into her arms.

“Oh, Albus... how are you...?”

“Better. Much better, thank you, mum.”

He wrapped his arms around her, cuddling close to her familiar warmth. His mothers hugs always had something calming. Safe. As if everything was alright. And now it was. He squeezed her tightly, taking a deep breath.

“I’m so glad.”

She put her hands to his cheeks, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead.

“Love you, Al.”

“Love you too, mum.”

She gently stroked over his cheeks before taking a seat next to Harry. Albus smiled, eyes wandering over to Draco whose eyes were glancing between him and Scorpius.

“Albus. Good to see you well.”

Albus nodded softly, suddenly remembering his dream again. Wouldn’t he want to know about that? It was his wife after all. Maybe he would get to tell him later on... Scorpius had taken it surprisingly well, Draco surely would too, wouldn’t he?

“Are you still in pain, Mr Potter?”

Madam Pomfrey squeezed through to him, a vial filled with a pinkish liquid in her hands. Albus shook his head, glancing down on himself, pushing down the blanket a little bit. Just then he noticed his shirt still hanging open, revealing a few thin scars running over his chest and stomach, standing out almost white against his skin. He swallowed, carefully touching one of them.

“I’ll give you some ointment so that the scars won’t remain.”

She placed something on the table next to him, handing him the little vial.

“Meanwhile you can drink this if pain will occur. Mr Malfoy said that will happen eventually.”

Albus took the vial from her hands, nodding softly, casting Draco a glance. How did he know? Did that happen to him too? Scorpius’ father’s expression didn’t give anything away so he glanced back at his son. He didn’t mind his family being here, they were worried and he had missed them quite much but simultaneously he wanted to be alone with Scorpius again. There was still so much to talk about.

“Well”, Ginny started, getting up from her seat, “I think we should all let you rest a little bit. James, Lily.”

She gestured to the door and Albus couldn’t escape the feeling she had seen the looks he had given his best friend. He tried giving her a thankful smile. James and Lily pulled him both into a hug again, before getting up and leaving reluctantly after promising to be back soon with a ton of sweets for him to get better (Ginny scowled at them). His father however looked like he didn’t want to leave his side ever again.

“Can’t I get you anything else, Albus?”, he asked, after letting the empty plates disappear, pulling his chair even closer to the bed.

“Do you need help with that?”, he pointed at the salve lying on the nightstand, Albus softly shook his head.

“Scorpius can help me with that...”

He realized what he had just said not until five seconds later when both Scorpius’ and his father turned their heads to him, his best friend gaping at him, his mouth slightly opened, Draco’s brows wandered up questioningly. He swallowed and had the sudden urge to pull the blanket over his head.

“I mean... he’ll help me when... I need help. Won’t you? Scorpius?”

Scorpius nodded frantically, shifting closer, looking everywhere but at his dad or Harry.

“Sure. I’ll rub you in.”

Albus stared at him, feeling his cheeks heat up rapidly. How was it that Scorpius had the talent to make everything worse? He forced himself to look at at his father, forcing an embarrassed smile.

“See? We’re fine. You can go.”

Harry blinked, even looking a bit hurt. He immediately felt guilty again, but they could talk later. He looked like he could need a good night of sleep.

“Alright...”, Harry said after another long ten seconds, leaning in to pull him into another hug. Albus returned it tightly, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Thank you, dad...”

His father didn’t say anything, perhaps he was wondering what he even was thanking him for. But Albus knew for what. He had gotten him out of there and they saved Scorpius from whatever Delphi had been planning. If he hadn’t believed him in the first place he would still sit in Azkaban and she would have done who knew what to his best friend.

His father let go again, pressing a kiss to his hair, something he hadn’t done in a while. Albus smiled softly, a pleasent warmth filling his heart.

“I’ll stay around.”

He nodded, watching his father get up and take a few steps towards the door before stopping and turning around to Draco expectantly. Scorpius’ father nodded, casting his son a glance.

“I’ll come back later then. Behave”, he added half joking, half serious, Albus felt his cheeks heat up again. But Scorpius beamed brightly, giving an adorable salute.

“Sure thing.”

Draco shook his head with a small smile, before turning around and accompanying Harry out of the door. As soon as it closed, Albus turned to his best friend, hesitantly meeting his eyes.

“Were you serious with the rubbing thing?”

Scorpius’ eyebrows slowly wandered up, he grinned, Albus softly hit his arm and he stopped, eyes wandering over to the small tube lying on the nightstand.

“If you want me to.”

Albus glanced back into his eyes, their usual mischievous sparkle had returned to them, the grin was tugging at his lips again.

“Uhm... yeah...”, he just got out, couldn’t stop staring at his lips, had they always looked so... nice? The way Scorpius’ tongue briefly flickered over them, as he shifted closer, reaching past him, still smiling... Albus forced himself to glance back up into his eyes before something happened he didn’t want to happen yet.

“Alright...”, Scorpius unscrewed the cap, squeezing some of the weird looking purplish cream on his fingers.

“Ugh, it’s cold... Beware.”

Albus managed a soft nod, opening the last buttons on his shirt, stripping out of it completely. Scorpius carefully began putting some of the cream onto one of the light scars that went over his chest. Albus had to smile at the gentleness of his touch, glancing up at his face again. He was biting down on his lip, carefully rubbing it over the long lines, going all over his upper body, concentrated look in his eyes.

“It’s not hurting.” Albus said, because Scorpius looked like he feared to do just that to him.

“No?”, he stopped with his hand right over his heart, Albus was certain he would hear how fast it was beating. He shook his head, glancing down on himself. The cream prickled a bit, it was cold indeed, but overall he was feeling quite warm.

“That’s good...”

Albus nodded, slowly glancing up to him again, Scorpius’ eyes were still focusing his chest, he was still rubbing gently, hands trailing down to his stomach.

“I hope it’ll help...”, he mumbled, moving a bit closer, Albus carefully watched his face. Had Scorpius always been this beautiful? His brows were furrowed a bit in concentration and concern, his light hair hanging into his forehead, it was slightly damp he just noticed, from the shower he had taken presumably. He had the strange urge to run his fingers through it, feeling his locks between his fingers, stroking them out of his eyes. Scorpius was softly biting down on his lip, eyes gazing back into his.

“My dad said Harry used that spell on him once, too...”

“He did?” Albus forgot his best friends pretty face for a moment, frowning lightly. He didn’t know that, his father had never told him.

“Yeah... When they were younger. They had a fight, I think. My dad never told me before.”

“Mine neither...” He wondered what happened. He knew of course that him and Draco hadn’t been exactly friends back then but a fight like this? How did he even know of this spell? He shuddered slightly at the thought. The pain had been horrible, like someone had sliced open his whole torso. Well.

But Harry knew what it did then. He knew what it had done to Draco. And he still had cast it at him. At Delphi, yes, but it had been _his_ body. He knew that it would leave scars, he knew that if Delphi ever changed them back, he would have to live with that.

Did he blame him though? His heart felt heavy at the thought of his father knowing the consequences of that spell and having no scruple whatsoever to cast it on him, but they all knew how dangerous Delphi was. They had just witnessed her torturing Scorpius for a second time, and he had been angry and scared and of course he had used this spell because he knew it would stop her. He couldn’t be angry at him. It was difficult and hard but that had been the right decision. Stopping Delphi. Even if it had meant hurting him. And he didn’t mean to hurt _him_ , he wanted to hurt her. And back in that church, didn’t he want that too?

“Well... I suppose it was never important.”

Albus shrugged, lifting his gaze into his eyes again. Scorpius’ hand trailed over his chest, continuing to rub in the cream. He remembered something, grasped his free hand and squeezed it softly.

“Back in the Owlery... She tortured you again, didn’t she? Delphi.”

Scorpius lowered his eyes, biting his lip, nodding slowly. His hands sank down resting in his lap and Albus felt a wave of pity crashing over him, guilt too. He shouldn’t have let that happened. They should have intervened beforehand, before she could hurt him again... He should have insisted on it more, they could have prevented that, him and his father, they could have spared him this pain...

“Did you... see?”, he asked quietly, pulling on his sleeves, his voice was dangerously close to tears again. Albus shook his head, leaning forwards a bit. He couldn’t stand him crying again, he didn’t want Scorpius to be sad ever again. It would take time, for all of them, to get over this but they’d manage. They had managed everything however difficult it had seemed to be.

“I... well, I heard. Dad and I, we just arrived...”

Scorpius gave a brief nod, wiping his nose with his sleeve, he still didn’t look up. Albus moved a bit closer to him, grabbing his arms, pulling him into another hug.

“Wow, Albus careful, you’re gonna get this cream all over me...” Scorpius mumbled, smile in his voice. Albus closed his eyes, trying to not touch his clothes too much.

“I’m sorry... we should have been faster.”

Scorpius let out a soft sigh, gently stroking over his back. Albus shivered slightly, but he wouldn’t admit. He was sure his best friend could see the goosebumps creeping all over his body anyways.

“Faster? You were in Azkaban, Albus.”

He was right. But his dad could have come sooner, they could have stopped her earlier. Maybe he could have tried to be more convincing, maybe he hadn’t done enough. As if Scorpius had read his thoughts, he leaned back, grabbing his face just like his mum had done earlier, eyes determinately glancing into his.

“Stop blaming yourself, Albus. It’s not your fault, okay? Remember, we were dealing with Voldemort’s daughter.”

Albus nodded. Right. They couldn’t have outsmarted her. She had been too good. He sighed, trying a light smile.

“You’re right. I’m just glad you’re okay again.  _We_ are okay.”

Scorpius returned his smile, nodding softly.

“We’re okay.”

He gently stroked his cheek again, which made Albus smile. They were. And most importantly they were together again. Really together, now...

“Okay?”

Albus nodded, promptly letting himself fall back into the pillow, Scorpius sank down next to him, snickering softly.

“Right, you’re supposed to rest. Don’t mind me just staying here.”

“I don’t...” He turned to the side, facing Scorpius. Not at all, to be clear. Scorpius smiled, snuggling closer.

“Good. Although... be warned, I kick in my sleep.”

“I couldn’t care less about that, Scorp.”

“You’ll see...”, Scorpius mumbled, leaning his head against his, closing his eyes. Albus did so too. He wondered if Scorpius was thinking about last night. Of when he let Delphi sleep in his bed. He shivered at the thought. Did they cuddle like this too? He couldn’t imagine her doing that voluntarily but maybe to earn his trust even more... So she had known about his feelings for Scorpius? Had he been that obvious? And of course she had used all that as her advantage to get him to trust her. What else had she done, what did she tell Scorpius?

He put his arm around him, snuggling closer. Hopefully nothing too bad. Scorpius shifted a bit closer, lifting his head suddenly, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“You know what, Albus?”

Albus felt his breath on his neck, shuddered pleasantly. Before he could stop himself he raised his hand, stroking a strand of hair out of his face.

“Yeah?”

“I think I’d like to become a healer.”

Albus blinked in surprise. Where did that come from? Scorpius, a healer? He raised his head, meeting his eyes.

“What?”

Scorpius nodded, supporting his head on his elbow, he looked surprisingly serious all of the sudden.

“You know... The next time something like this happens... I’d like to know what to do.”

Albus wanted to say that something like this would never happen again now that Delphi was behind bars, but he knew Scorpius didn’t mean only that. He grasped his hand, squeezing it softly, giving him a smile.

“That’s a very good idea.”

His best friends eyes lit up, he smiled a beautiful smile that send a pleasent warmth through Albus’ whole body.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah...”, he nodded, glancing down on himself, briefly touching his chest.

“I mean, I’d let you rub me in anytime.“

Scorpius stared at him for a few seconds and Albus stared back, very aware of how that had just sounded. Then they both broke out in laughter.

Albus leaned in, resting his head against his shoulder, giggling.

“Wow. That sounded wrong.”

“Or right. Depends on how you meant it.”

“Well, not like that. I think”, he grinned and Scorpius snuggled up to him again.

“You think? You know what, Albus...?”

Albus smiled at him, cocking his head questioningly, Scorpius’ was smiling softly, lovingly even. Albus felt captured by how much warmth there was in his grey eyes. He looked every inch his father with his blonde hair and pale skin and sharp features, but his eyes were always warm. It reminded him of the way his mother had looked at him earlier a little bit.

“We may have been a bit stupid, traveling back in time and all, but all in all... it came out pretty good, didn’t it?”

Albus snorted, frowning doubtfully.

“Pretty good? You cuddled with Delphi and I almost died."

Scorpius sat up, meeting his eyes. Albus glanced up at him, frowning thoughtfully, trying to think of what could possibly be good about this.

“There’s no almost about it, I actually died. Only for a minute though.”

Scorpius grasped his hand, holding tight, a mixture of amusement and seriousness in his eyes.

“Yes. And you’re back. _And_ I didn’t cuddle with Delphi! We were just sleeping next to each other.”

Albus grinned, despite feeling a sting of jealousy at that. He was after all cuddling with Scorpius right now.

“Well then.”

Scorpius rolled his eyes, leaning on his elbow again, suddenly really close to his face. Albus could feel heat creeping onto his cheeks. Would that ever stop?

“What I’m trying to say is... we’ve got plenty of time now. Figuring out everything. About us.”

He softly poked his cheek at the last word, Albus’ grin widened even more.

“Fitting, isn’t it? After everything that happened. Time.”

Scorpius chuckled, Albus gazed back into his eyes, smiling. He was right, they had enough time. Enough time to explore what there was between them. To get over this and look forward, start something new. Something good. Something that would never ever need turning back time. 

***

 

 

 

Albus left the hospital wing two days later, excited to join Scorpius in their dorm room again. He had spent the last two nights alone, thankfully without any nightmares or any after effects of his injury but painfully missing his best friend and their late night talk. His father had stayed until the next day, still looking awfully guilty but that had lessened a bit during the time he was here and Albus was very glad about it. He didn’t blame him. He thought he did, but surprisingly he didn’t. He had done what was right, what Albus would’ve done as well. And he was his father, he _had_ to forgive him. He wanted to forgive him. He loved him after all. Very much.

And he knew Harry loved him too, even though they were both horribly bad at showing that.

He had told him everything that happened since Albus could barely remember. How after Scorpius had passed out, probably of shock, his father, Albus’ mother and Professor McGonagall had arrived. According to him, their headmaster had taken care of Delphi, who had been laughing and crying at the same time, making sure she would be send to Azkaban, while his father had brought him up to the castle and send his mother to get James and Lily. He didn’t say why, but he didn’t need to. Albus knew what he had been fearing. Draco and Scorpius arrived a bit later, after his best friend had woken up again, and Draco apparently had known just the counter spell for his wounds. He still hadn’t thanked him, Albus noticed a bit guiltily. But his father probably had. He was glad it was over and even more glad it was all so blurry to him. He’d rather not wake up at night in cold sweat, afraid of lying in a puddle of blood again, thank you very much.

Today was the first day they would have actual lessons again and Albus felt a bit anxious about it. He didn’t think McGonagall had told the students what happened, but maybe they had figured it out somehow or asked Scorpius about it. He didn’t know what to think about that, he could only hope they wouldn’t start interrogating him. He wanted it to be over, once and for all.

The first lesson he had to attend was Transfiguration and Albus was glad it was one of the classes they weren’t sharing with Gryffindor and relied on McGonagall to not speak about what happened. And to stop his fellow students from commenting on it.

Scorpius had hooked his arm through his, endlessly babbling about the lessons he had missed in the last days and how boring it had been without him and Albus almost felt as if everything that happened had been nothing more than a bad dream.

When they entered the Transfiguration classroom a few heads turned to them but the students surprisingly smiled instead of scowling. Albus took his usual seat next to Scorpius at the back of the class, leaning closer to him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone smile at me in this room before.”

“They’ve been doing this the past days to me as well. It’s kinda creepy, don’t you think?”

Albus nodded softly, straightening up a bit when a Ravenclaw boy in front of them turned around to him.

“Glad to have you back, Potter.”

He simply stared back at him, certain to have misunderstood. He couldn’t be serious. Perhaps they accidentally returned to some other different timeline where students were nice to him.

“T-thanks...?”

The boy nodded and the red haired girl next to him gave him a warm smile. Albus tried smiling back, feeling Scorpius gently nudging him under the table.

“See? Yesterday she even let me copy her notes...”

“What’s happening?”, Albus asked with smile, feeling weirdly happy. That wasn’t so bad. Even if they were just pretending. He couldn’t escape the feeling his father or at least Professor McGonagall had something to do with this.

“They simply admire us for defeating the Dark Lords shifty daughter.”

Albus raised his brows at Scorpius. Sure. He doubted that was it. He wondered what exactly they had told the other students. Hopefully nothing to bad, as much as he enjoyed not getting insulting comments thrown at his head, he didn’t want everything to be sugarcoated for the rest of his life. Or well, school life.

Before Albus could think about it, the door opened and Professor McGonagall entered, announcing the topic for today’s lesson would be transfiguring animals into objects and back. She swung her wand at her desk, revealing a couple of cages containing a variety of snakes, toads and rats.

Albus felt a bit nervous, the last time he had transfigured something was quite a long time ago. In fact he hadn’t done any magic since... well, since Delphi had snapped his wand what seemed like ages ago. His father had lend him his spare one until they would get a new one.

Scorpius seemed to notice his knee bopping up and down nervously, he sat his hand down on it, patting it reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, Albus. We’ll be fine.”

Albus gave him a grateful smile. It was _we_ now. He liked that very much. Scorpius got up and returned with two cages, placing the one with the snake in front of him.

“You know, a snake for the Potter that is in Slytherin.”

“And you took the rat, how am I supposed to interpret that?”

Scorpius snorted, shrugging his shoulders.

“I’d prefer to not talk about it, Albus.”

Albus giggled, turning to face his snake, a quite beautiful one, greenish scales shimmering golden, dark eyes. He had never understood how some people could be scared of these creatures, they weren’t dangerous. Not naturally.

He grabbed his wand, casting a glance at the blackboard where McGonagall had written down the spell and drawn the wand movement. It didn’t look that difficult. He focused the snake again, leaning a bit closer.

“Sorry, mate, I’ll turn you back I promise.”

He heard Scorpius giggle next to him, he waved his wand at his rat. There was a blue light coming out of his wand before the rat turned into a teacup of the same color. Scorpius gasped in joy, putting out his hand for a high five. Albus met it and snorted. It didn’t look very pretty.

“Beautiful.”

“I know.” Scorpius grinned, gesturing to his snake. “Go ahead, you.”

Albus gripped his wand, returning his attention to his animal with a smile. Okay. It hadn’t looked that difficult. He just hoped he wouldn’t accidentally kill it.

Clearing his throat he focused the dark shimmering eyes of the snake, trying to concentrate.

 

“Don’t you dare, Potter”, a sudden voice hissed and Albus almost dropped his wand.

He stared at the animal in front of him, having no doubt that voice didn’t come directly out of it’s mouth. But that... wasn’t possible. He couldn’t understand snakes. Snakes couldn’t speak to him, they never could. How was that even possible?

Of course. _Delphi_.

He swallowed. She had been in his head. Who knew what she had done there. Who knew what was still left of it. Who knew if maybe that wasn’t all.

Albus let his wand drop after all. Panic infested him like fire spreading through his veins. His breath got stuck in his throat, he froze in place as he realized that this would change him. Change everything.

“Albus? Are you okay?”, Scorpius’ worried voice beside him asked. " Albus weakly shook his head.

 

“No”, he replied. “No, I’m not.”


End file.
